Turkey & Nuclear Weapons

[pmulcahy11b]

Could you rip out the passenger seats of those aircraft and outfit them with standard troop seats and stretcher stands What level of modification would this take if it is possible Might be able to put more people and gear in the same space, though it wouldn't help the problem with weight and fuel expenditure...

[Rainbow Six]

I don't know about putting in military style seating, but you can reconfigure a passenger jet to increase its capacity, for example by stripping out the First Class and Business Class seats, which have a bigger seat pitch, to put in more economy seats. I'm no expert on the subject, but the seats basically get fitted into rails on the floor and can be removed / amended as neccessary- I don't think it's a major operation. iirc Sanjuro works in the airline industry so might be able to go into more detail.

The record for maximum number of passengers on a single flight belongs to an El Al Israeli Airlines 747.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Solomon

It's interesting to note they planned for 760 passengers, so that may be approaching maximm capacity, although Addis - Tel Aviv would presumably require much less fuel than a transatlantic flight, so would consequently be able to carry more passengers.

Personally, I think there would be enough wide bodied 747's, 767's and 777's (which were just entering service) and equivalent Airbus types (I'm not sure if US carriers are big users of Airbus' wide bodies) available to meet Government needs (and probably still leave the airlines with enough to maintain remaining international services), so there would be no need to go as far as requisitioning 737's (or even 757's).

[Schone23666]

Just posting my two cents in regards to gasoline hoarding and rationing.

Having witnessed it myself, I think we can pretty well agree that gasoline, or any sort of fuel hoarding would be rampant once word reaches of a pending apocalypse. In the case of T2K, it was a rather popular idea during the Cold War that once the U.S. and U.S.S.R. literally began locking horns in Europe and elsewhere, the situation would quickly deteriorate and go nuclear. Lines at gas stations would increase drastically with panic buying and the stations would get jammed, fights would break out (with some likely turning bloody) and police and perhaps even National Guard in a few cases would take control of the gas stations, with forced rationing put into effect. There may be more cases of looters attempting to siphon gas from any sort of parked vehicles including construction equipment to fill their own spare tanks as well.

This would also just as well apply to any other basic necessities. Food and drinking water would get hoarded as any sort of grocery or supermarket gets their shelves cleaned by panic buyers and/or opportunists and looters. I'd also expect runs on other things such as batteries, candles, portable radios, hygienic supplies, etc. Oh yes, the gun stores will be making a killing too, assuming they don't get robbed or looted as well.

After that...well, once things go completely south and the nukes fly Anyone who's got a decent cache of supplies will, sadly, have to realize there's plenty others out there who would rather take those supplies for themselves, one way or another...

[Legbreaker]

I think we can point to natural events such as Sandy to see a small sample of what would happen. In T2K with the tension continuing for months (not just the days prior to a big storm) the situation could probably be MUCH worse. Logistics networks may even break under the strain, especially when the desperate mobs start hijacking the trucks before they even reach the warehouses.

[Schone23666]

I think we can point to natural events such as Sandy to see a small sample of what would happen. In T2K with the tension continuing for months (not just the days prior to a big storm) the situation could probably be MUCH worse. Logistics networks may even break under the strain, especially when the desperate mobs start hijacking the trucks before they even reach the warehouses.

Without getting into details, it was getting ugly up here in northern New Jersey and New York for the week after Sandy hit. So, as you said, with a looming nuclear apocalypse, rumors flying rampant and tensions building to an unbearable level, matters would be getting ugly on the home front, and all that would be playing out BEFORE the strikes.

Though admittedly, this is being seen mostly from a POV of what might/would have occurred on the American home front, I'd be curious as to how bad, if not worse it would be playing out on the other home fronts such as Australia, the U.K., France, etc.