Originally Posted by
KRviator
At several tonnes for each bogie, I can't see it being useful.
Okay, so maybe I am missing the sarcasm here, but I had assumed the bogie stays on the ground - only the actual tube goes with the aircraft ?!
The advantage is that one could have multiple chassis sitting at a gate, and an aircraft lands, the bogey takes away the arrival passengers to one gate and another tube already loaded with passengers, strapped in, hand luggage stowed etc. rolls out to the aircraft as soon as its refuelled and off it goes.In effect, the tube is loaded at the gate even though the aircraft is elsewhere and you save all the tedious loading time while the aircraft is at the gate awaiting everyone to slowly get on board.
No idea about the fixing of the tube onto the aircraft but the pre-loading of the passengers just as the aircraft lands and before it gets to the game could at least save the entire boarding time.
Security and immigration happens exactly as now, except once into the lounge and checked, people can load onto the tube even though the aircraft is elsewhere in the airport. As soon as the aircraft arrives, the tube of arriving passengers is dropped onto the bogey and it taken to another gate and the new tube of people is added onto the airframe. One could imagine that the aircraft never comes to the gate - only the passenger tubes would do that.