Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains Advancements in Aviation

What do you think the next major advancement in aviation will be?

Neil, Boeing engineer & pilot here, always a big fan of your work. Would love to help clarify some of the ideas here and update you on more aviation advances.

Taxiing (rarely spelled taxying) is the movement of an aircraft on the ground, under its own power, in contrast to towing or pushback where the aircraft is moved by a tug. The aircraft usually moves on wheels, but the term also includes aircraft with skis or floats (for water-based travel).

Neil has the wrong term when he says Taxi. He meant "hold" (in a pre-determined holding pattern near the airfield). Taxiing is what planes do when they move on the ground, like when you taxi from the stand to the runway.

Neil, I am older than you. Only once in my life, in my childhood I was a passenger on a Boing 707. Those four turbojet engines were so loud INSIDE the cabin that my ears were still ringing hours after a 5 hour flight. Today I am barely aware of the large twin turbofan engined Boing's flying over my house at 5,000 or 6,000 feet.

When a flock of geese takes out both engines I want Sully not a computer

I lived in a suburb right next to O'Hare airport from 1980-90. I could look out the window and see the planes lining up to land when a certain runway was open for landings. They would be spaced about a minute apart and the whole house would vibrate when they passed over. In the summertime, even when the air conditioning wasn't needed, we would often need to keep the windows and doors closed so we could hear the television, radio, and each other. When I moved a little bit further away in '99, I was awakened a few times to a strange sound that I swore in my half-awake state must have been a UFO landing in the street. It turns out, I was now living far enough away from O'Hare that I was hearing airplanes throttling down for landing, which is one spooky sound. I still live in the same house and I've noticed it's a LOT quieter these days.

The trick with the glass of water is always funny to do, even when you perfectly know what happens. But it is also done without computer with a turn coordinator (technically a ball in a u shaped pipe) or, for a glider with a whool wire. This turn coordination is very important for the confort of the passengers, but also to avoid asymetric stall.

On the subject of airplane's noise. I can never forget, in the 80's I happened to be working at Heathrow airport cargo area, in close proximity of the runaway. Everyday, when Concord was taking off, we had to suspend any activities because vibrations and sound were indeed overwhelming. Glorious memories!

Actually when an aircraft banks and you perceive to be horizontal is called a coordinated turn. This is done by not only using your ailerons to bank, but to also use the rudder (change of direction) in the process. On the flight deck you have what is called turn & bank indicator found even in early biplanes, or the more modern turn coordinator. In both cases you have a slightly bent level with a ball in the middle. in a coordinated turn all you need to do is to keep the ball centred. (no slip and no skid) When on autopilot these coordinated turns are done automatically (computer enhanced).

In 1965 Boing test pilot Tex Johnson performed a complete barrel roll in a 707 (unplanned and in front of the Boing CEO) with a cup of coffee sitting on the dash panel, never spilling a drop. Quite an airplane ... quite a pilot.

Pilots have been using a "slip skid" indicator for decades. It is a curved, liquid filled instrument with a bubble in it. By keeping the bubble centered, the centrifugal force is centered and the plane is neither slipping or skidding during the turn and the feeling of gravity is centered through your body. The tech already existed when I got my license in 1973. The process is called a "coordinated turn".

Pilots learn in the earliest lessons how to do what we call a "coordinated turn", where the bank angle and turn rate is such where no "side slipping" happens and the occupants perceive no lateral acceleration. And is all done manually, with hands and feet only. Early autopilots systems (two axis) back in the day were not able to do that (WW2 era and soon after), but after the introduction of the Yaw Damper system, the system was able to take care of the rudder inputs as well.

Sorry Neil, but taxiing happens on the ground. That is why the short sections of asphalt or concrete between runways are called taxi-ways. Even Chuck knew this, as he was surprised you said planes “taxi” in the air, in a holding pattern.

Neil I love your enthusiasm for aviation. A few points- after decades as an airline pilot for one of the big 3, I would perform maybe 3 or 4 auto-lands per year. That happened when the visibility was so low that you couldn't see the runway until you were over it. By the way, the auto-land crosswind limit is (on nearly all jetliners) 15 kts. The autopilot can handle 15 kts. of crosswind but the pilot could do a landing with 35 kts. of crosswind. It's never very foggy and windy at the same time so it works. Also, I'd estimate that a third of the auto-lands I'd do was because the maintenance controller required it to keep the airplane "current". The autopilot, like pilots, need to perform a number of satisfactory landings over 90 day period. Finally, the term you were looking for was "zero lateral Gs". That's not a result of a computer but the physics of flight. It's the components of lift (horizontal, vertical and resultant) and it's the same on an A-380, B-747 and a J-3 Piper Cub in coordinated flight. Cheers!

Neil, it's called a go around, and chuck was right its also called a holding pattern, taxiing is what you do on the ground when going from runway > terminal or terminal > runway, you don't taxi in the air

I'm an aviation enthusiast, so it's rather easy to please me with the subject alone, it's just....nice summary of development since my first flight in an IL-62 indeed. Thanks, Doctor Tyson!

Just spoke w/my best friend who’s a 777 captain about what was said. Some smaller jets “could” take off at a steeper angle/rate, but they’d need more power = more noise. Landing is still the same noise level, the same descent rate, and they land at both ends of the runway depending on wind direction, so I’m not so sure about what was mentioned at the beginning. He hasn’t heard anything anyway. Most wide bodies take off at ~15° and always have. Would be interesting to get a pilot on and have a good talk about it all.

One quibble, (there's probably a dozen comments already saying this) airplanes have never "leaned" in a turn, like you feel in a car in a turn. From the earliest days, they have an instrument with a tube of liquid that looks like a carpenter's level, but instead of an air bubble, it has a little marble-like or buckshot size ball. If the plane is skidding where you'd feel a leaning, the pilot would correct it by pressing the rudder to center the marble. The old adage among pilots is 'step on the ball', if the ball is on the right, you step on the right rudder pedal. That is how you always maintain coordinated flight. Autopilots do this well but you've never needed a computer for it, any good pilot would keep you from spilling your drink.

The LOUDEST aircraft noise I ever experienced was over Macho Grande......which explains why I'll never be over Macho Grande