How to render air travel obsolete?

[sozme]

In my story, there is a "virus"/EMP-like thing/magical doomsday device that among other things suddenly makes air travel (e.g. via airplanes) impossible. I am trying to think of a plausible way to make this happen, including with techno-science-magic, e.g. altering the laws of physics. Sadly I am too dumb to even understand the requisite physics to be able to alter it. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Andrew Lambert]

Perhaps it nullifies any air pressure changes that must occur for an aircraft to fly. I'm fairly sure that for a plane to lift off the ground you have differing pressures above and below the wing (please check!). The device could prevent any macro air pressure changes from occurring. As one of the 95% of non-tech readers likely to read it, I'd be satisfied with something like that - my first book is filled with such stuff. A should be more knowledgeable working for Rolls Royce Aerospace - but I'm in the fuel systems division..

 

[Brian G Turner]

EMP-like thing

An EMP knocks out electronics - it would be difficult to fly when a plane's avionics don't work.

 

[Biskit]

I would seriously prefer:

An EMP knocks out electronics - it would be difficult to fly when a plane's avionics don't work.

over

Perhaps it nullifies any air pressure changes that must occur for an aircraft to fly

because you have all sorts of consequences of playing with something so fundamental - it would change the way weather behaves, probably stop any flying animal from flying, all the way down to changing the way a falling sycamore seed moves.

 

[goldhawk]

The Sun's output has intensified and there is too much radiation at high attitudes for safe travel. Only the truly desperate would fly. You could throw in ozone depletion with this.

 

[Vertigo]

I don't think EMP would do it because it would be almost impossible to maintain a continuous EMP (after all the P does stand for pulse) also it's perfectly possible to build electronics hardened against an EMP. Also an EMP would affect all electronics not just aircraft.

I quite like @goldhawk's suggestion except you would have to allow for the (grave) consequences of that at ground level as well.

@Andrew Lambert is right about the air pressure stuff but I'm at a loss as to how something so fundamental could be affected. Also, as @Biskit says such a thing would affect anything else that operated on the same basis; birds, windmills, wind turbines, propellers, car design, leaves fluttering to the ground etc.

 

[Andrew Lambert]

I would seriously prefer:

over

because you have all sorts of consequences of playing with something so fundamental - it would change the way weather behaves, probably stop any flying animal from flying, all the way down to changing the way a falling sycamore seed moves.

At least it would stop the pigeon infestation by me ;-)

 

[goldhawk]

I quite like @goldhawk's suggestion except you would have to allow for the (grave) consequences of that at ground level as well.

Even scientists are mystified as to why radiation levels at ground level remains normal. "This does not fit our understanding of the weather," stated one leading meteorologist.

 

[Kylara]

Aggressive metal eating bacteria? Would wreck the integrity of the aircraft and even a threat of that would ground everything.

 

[Overread]

A few thoughts:

1) EMP - simple and if powerful enough could stop air travel for advanced aircraft; but it wouldn't take long to build simpler aircraft which wouldn't require electronics to fly. Granted this might mean that flight is limited to only smaller aircraft and fewer flights as you might not have radar and such. Also a global EMP shuts everything electronic down as well so you'd likely have a total collapse of most civilization as well.

2) Radiation increases could be possible, but again its going to impact ground level radiation too plus you can shield for it in construction.

3) Turbulance could be possible; a massive weather system that makes it all but impossible to fly at high altitudes; of course again this will affect ground level and constant high weather systems would generally tear up the ground - you'd be having trouble supporting stable life.

4) Navigation - magnetic interference could render most conventional orientation systems moot; especially if you could disrupt radar and satellite communications. This wouldn't stop air travel totally but would likely ground most larger aircraft and transportation methods.

5) High atmosphere particles*/flying bugs - If of a sufficent size/number and density they could render air travel too risky as they'd clog up engines and smash through windows (like large bird flocks). This is possibly the most plausible as you can create a reason for the bugs/particles to remain in the upper atmosphere without descending in any great volume whilst being dense enough to affect air travel (or at least make it very risky). You also can get away with it without blocking out all sunlight and such so you don't affect the ground too much.

The only other way I can think of is an AI/enemy that targets aircraft only and is off sufficient size to have global coverage. Perhaps a military satellite system put in place to counter aircraft gone rouge and shut off from ground communications. Thus active but otherwise impossible to target as it shoots down anything that enters the air of sufficient height. Of course its shots/laser comes down they can go up as well; but suitable structures might not exist so it would at least prevent air travel for a period of time.

You could also go really low-tech and think political. A major outbreak could (esp if its hot on the heels of another) result in global shutdown of air-travel to prevent further spread. Aircraft would still work, but might well be ordered to land and if crosser international boundaries or even going long distance within a country - could be shot down rather than risk further infection spread.



*and just after I write all that I remember - Volcanoes! A real world example where atmospheric conditions remained habitable but where aircraft were grounded for a period of time. There was a semi-recent one in Iceland that shut down most air travel in the UK for a few days. Prolonged particles that remain in the upper atmosphere would certainly work!

 

[Locrian]

A change in weather conditions would do it, I'm thinking of the ash in the air after the volcanic eruption in Iceland grounding air travel in Europe; potentially several supervolcano eruptions could do this. Pollution of some kind of special source could be hand waved into damaging aircraft quickly enough for air travel to be considered too dangerous.

 

[Biskit]

If you combine

At least it would stop the pigeon infestation by me ;-)

with

The only other way I can think of is an AI/enemy that targets aircraft only and is off sufficient size to have global coverage.

you could have vast flocks of genetically engineered, psychotic, metal-tearing, predatory pigeons which rip open aircraft like airborne piranhas, just to get to the meat inside. We have a prototype for you here - a really mean pigeon that chases the crows off the bird-food.

 

[Vertigo]

I critical piece of information that impacts this discussion is how long you want air travel to be prevented; one day, week, month, year, forever?

 

[mosaix]

If you're going to mess about with fundamental physics just reduce the rate at which air expands when heated. Halving it should do the trick.

But, as with other suggestions, weather is going to be affected not to mention the internal combustion engine and all sorts of weapons.

 

[Ursa major]

In my story, there is a "virus"/EMP-like thing/magical doomsday device that among other things suddenly makes air travel (e.g. via airplanes) impossible.

I've highlighted the answer already embedded in your question. (There may be others....)

It only matters how this device works if the solution is to counteract whatever the magical device is doing. If the way to defeat it is to destroy the magical device, it doesn't matter how it works.

You will, however, need to show the effect on a plane that tries to take to the air. This could be anything, including the engines stopping or the wings no longer providing enough lift. You might also want to show whether the effect is active -- so that planes can't fly above a certain height (which might be as low as the ground) but birds still can -- or passive (in which case nothing might be able to fly).

 

[Lucien21]

What about a magnetic field reversal event

Earth's magnetic poles are 'overdue' a flip | Daily Mail Online

 

[Dan Jones]

This is a bit obscure, but I worked in the aerospace sector for a few years and this is a real thing. You don't need to understand the science, it's more of an engineering problem.

Whenever an aircraft is grounded there are routine maintenance checks done on it to make sure it's flightworthy for the next journey. During flight, the aircraft's health management and prognosticate systems will be monitoring the various sensors, performance, state and power consumptions of all its systems. If there's a fault (say, a certain sensor in the engine has stopped providing data to the HMAP system) the flight crew will be alerted, and so will ground support, and it will be flagged as an issue to be investigated before the next journey is undertaken. During the next period of downtime, the fault will be sorted out by the maintenance engineers.

Often you'll find that the data provided by the HMAP system is faulty itself, and you get a phenomenon known as No Fault Found, otherwise known as a false positive. It costs the aviation sector millions upon millions each year, and is a real bugbear.

Now, with a bit of handwavium it's perfectly plausible that a group of cyber hackers (or whoever) with the magical item you mentioned could send out a signal that generates an aforementioned false positive. A little extrapolation and you could ground entire fleets this way, because the maintenance guys have to get it fixed before the aircraft is cleared as flightworthy again. So you wouldn't be interfering with the aircraft itself, only it's self-monitoring systems. Thing is about aerospace, they take safety VERY seriously. So that would be my method, and avoids any awkward physics.

Happy to provide more info if you think this could work as a plot device. Hope it helps!

 

[Danny McG]

Winged demons warping through from the Dungeon Dimensions

 

[Mad Alice]

In my story, there is a "virus"/EMP-like thing/magical doomsday device that among other things suddenly makes air travel (e.g. via airplanes) impossible. I am trying to think of a plausible way to make this happen, including with techno-science-magic, e.g. altering the laws of physics. Sadly I am too dumb to even understand the requisite physics to be able to alter it. Anyone have any suggestions?

Aircraft always attract lightning strikes. In fact the rotation of the now endemic carbon fiber propeller model seems to somehow act as a serious attractant for upper atmospheric lightning, possibly because of the carbon itself being conductive and then you are forcing the flow of ions over those blades and creating charge, like scuffing your slippers over the carpet, only up in the clouds.

If you were to add any input of energy to this equation through your magical device, every aircraft would in effect become a flying bomb, instantly enveloped by lightning as soon as a certain elevation was reached, and the plane would either be able to completely catch fire or create a hole in the atmosphere to drop through as the engines seized and all lift was lost.

It wouldnt take many crashes for all crafts to be grounded, especially if a threat was publicly issued explaining that these weren't accidents and would continue.

 

[sozme]

I critical piece of information that impacts this discussion is how long you want air travel to be prevented; one day, week, month, year, forever?

Forever