If you’ve ever experienced flight delays due to plane maintenance issues, you’ll take heart in this concept plane created by Swiss scientists. If put into practice, it could end airport gridlock forever. The idea, called Clip-Air, comes from Switzerland’s Federal Polytechnic Institute and involves airplanes with separate, interchangeable parts that can be mixed and matched as needed, including wings and engines that can be attached to pods where passengers are loaded. The idea could help avoid the situation of having to change planes when a mechanical issue arises and lessen airport gridlock because a new engine or set of wings could potentially be switched out easily and quickly. Passengers could also remain inside the pods, which could be transported by road or rail to a different location. “The premise behind Clip-Air is to bring rail transport’s flexibility to air transport and to make airports reach all the way into railway stations,” reads the project’s website. Given that Clip-Air is just a concept at this point, it’s a long way from reality. The removable wings and cabin pods are not very aerodynamic in practice, so the design may have trouble gaining traction. The idea would take a significant amount of engineering and development to come to fruition. 
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