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Comment by sschueller | Hacker News Reader

If you don't want to risk lives training pilots at least carry some cargo. I assume you would want to "train" someone on a fully loaded plane as well?

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It says they are using a "domestic configured Airbus A321neo"; it probably doesn't have the range to make the trip with cargo. The idea being the train pilots on the NEO so they can fly/teach it on the XLR.

It should be able to carry at least 180 passengers times 80kg = 14400kg, right? And airlines don't like losing money, so perhaps it's something else, like not having the infrastructure/licenses to haul cargo?

not if the plan is to do the actual flights on the xlr which is a longer range variant of the same plane

Apparently, the A321neo has a range of 7400km, which is more than enough for Philadelphia-Edinburgh.

But ... it's a plane configured for passengers.

There is some cargo space i guess, but maybe it's not worth the trouble as it wouldn't make any significant amount of money?

Does that airline even do any cargo operations, and thus have the know how to get cargo customers?

The airliners regularly make more revenue carrying cargo than with passengers on board.

I thought part of how the USA postal service works is by flying mail on commercial planes. I think it was part of making passenger flights profitable and accessible to the public at some point?

If the whole point of these flights is training new pilots, would you even want to worry about cargo, especially if it's for a customer?

Well I hope someone with actual aviation knowledge shows up and enlightens us.

Think of all the deliveries in your town. Some are almost coincidental with your trips! But the hassle of figuring out how to do one or more of them is not worth the effort.

Startup idea: It's like Uber, but for mail!

"Get paid to go on road trips to see and explore the country." or "Planning a vacation? We'll help you pay for it and take you to exciting new places few rarely get to see!" or "Need new pics for Insta? Get paid while looking for backdrops no one else has!"

Please give me my billion dollar seed investment now.

/joke

You didn't mention "AI" so you can at best get 1.5 million.

They're not qualified pilots so carrying anything would be breaking the rules.

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