Ben Carter

speaker

694 appearances 29 recordings 1 series first heard Apr 2013 last heard Aug 2018

Ben Carter’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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More or Less · Will 40% of the world's workforce really be in Africa by 2050? · 22 Jun 2013 podcast

The plane carries on taxiing for several more minutes before trying to take off, at which point furious men use their cars to pull down the wings to stop the plane flying away. voice-verified

It is, and very long, an incredible 13 minutes worth of high-speed action. voice-verified

But there is a problem that has occurred to many people after they've left the cinema. voice-verified

How long is the runway if people are driving on it for 13 minutes at speed fast enough to keep up with a plane landing and taking off? voice-verified

Well, the key to this calculation is the speed of the plane. voice-verified

So I contacted pilot Captain Ian Hollingworth to ask him what the landing speed might be for a large cargo plane. voice-verified

As far as calculating the speed of the plane when it lands on the runway, that's difficult because Captain Hollingworth told me that once you land and decelerate, it's not possible to then speed the plane up and take off again, as happens in the film. voice-verified

We also needed to know the take-off speed. voice-verified

Here's Captain Hollingworth again. voice-verified

Now, the cars speed up and slow down during the 13 minutes, and we've taken an estimated average speed of 120 miles an hour. voice-verified

So two miles every minute makes the runway 26 miles long, and that's a conservative estimate. voice-verified

Across the internet, people have been trying to come up with a figure, and many are nearer 30 miles. voice-verified

But we think these estimates are all making the same mistake. voice-verified

Yes, Ruth. voice-verified

In a way, you're right. voice-verified

It's a movie. voice-verified

So when the hero is grappling with the villain on the plane, the film can cut from the fight to what is going on outside on the runway. voice-verified

Both these things are happening at the same time because it's a film. voice-verified

You can see everything. voice-verified

So we looked at the sequence carefully and recalculated how long the plane is actually on the runway. voice-verified

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