Here is an idea to relieve hunger on some starving nations in Africa.

Delivering fresh bread instead of flour would save already depleted firewood supplies.

Jet plane specially designed with bakery on board and GPS controlled automated drop off system.

Plane would have several automated big breadmakers onboard.

These breadmakers would be filled with bread ingredients loaded in donating countries like Molvania in Europe and head to Bongoswana in Africa.

Making the dough on the ground and flying to the altitude of 10 000 metres would surely make it raise and less yeast would be required.

Travel time between those two countries is aproximately 8 hours and enough of those super size breads

Breadmakers would be timer controlled and buns are just baked before arriving to Bongoswana dropzone.

Breadmakers would use waste heat from the mantle of the jet engines.

Bread would be packed in suitable new cotton bags, sizes S, M and L which can be used as t-shirts once the bread has been consumed.

Dropping the bread would not require parachutes as bread would bounce from the ground like a rugby ball. Leaving away parachutes would save on costs.

People would need a warning to stay away from the dropzone and wear hard hats for collecting the bread. Soft fluffy white bread would be best suitable for this kind of operation.

Could somebody calculate terminal velocity of a white bread loaf, please?
-- Pellepeloton, Oct 14 2006

A way to add protein to bread http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalakukko
Finnish kalakukko bread filled with fish [Pellepeloton, Oct 16 2006]

A similar service, but for the well-to-do Orbital_20toaster
[normzone, Oct 17 2006]

I_20said_20that_20y..._2fjaw_20attachment [not_morrison_rm, Apr 11 2012]

We are talking about dropping whole bread loaves out of the plane on cotton sacks. So the buttered toast theory does not apply in this case.

I quess you could automate the bread delivery even further and cut the loaves to slices once the loaves comes out of the breamaker, then conveyor belt would drop them past the jet exhaust and toasting would be quaranteed. But still no butter on top.
-- Pellepeloton, Oct 14 2006


The breadmaking machinery should scavenge the heat from the engines.

This will need to be a low altitude drop, so people will have time to hear the plane coming.

Whole grain is healthier than the evil fluffy stuff.
-- normzone, Oct 14 2006


//How would the people in these hungry nations purchase bread from the aircraft if the aircraft doesn't intend to stop? //

I think I mentioned donating the bread for hungry Nations. Part of Foreign Aid.

[Normzone] You are right about the evil fluffy stuff. Personally I prefer dark rye bread which is heavy and may cause injury if hits a person with speed.

Dropzone needs to be clear of people before opening the hatch. This could be a bit ricky with all those hungry people jockeying for best position to get the breads? Possibly a fake drop of few white loaves and then 200 metres later the main drop off of rye bread on a clear patch of land.
-- Pellepeloton, Oct 15 2006


Just drop the dough into the engine just aft of the combustion chamber. This will flash bake it as it heads for the rear turbine which will slice the fresh loaves into neat easy to eat slices to rain down on the starving crowds below.

Just turn on the afterburner for toast!
-- Galbinus_Caeli, Oct 15 2006


// Just turn on the afterburner for toast! //

Doesn't this leave us with the age-old problem of unevenly toasted bread?
-- kdmurray, Oct 15 2006


I have thought a way to add protein to the bread to make it more nutritious. The kalakukko bread needs to be filled with fish. If the jetplanes were those Russian water bombers, they could scoop water from the sea and some fish with it, discard water and you got the fish left.

This fish could be then baked inside the bread and voila', a kalakukko bread. Healthy and nutritious bread.
-- Pellepeloton, Oct 16 2006


"bongoswana"??? Try looking at an atlas. No croissant for you...
-- Argentaffin, Oct 16 2006


Air dropping bread seems a bit irresponsible to me. Consider the poor and hungry farmer, who has managed to ward off death up until now by SELLING bread. Pepper the countryside with loaves and our farmer's livelihood is instantly gone. Now he can't sow next year's crop, because he can't buy seeds.

Will the plane come back next year? If so, the cycle of dependence on the plane will continue, increasing in magnitude each time. If the plane doesn't come back, _everybody_ starves.

Humanitarian aid is commendable and necessary, but carpet-bombing meddling with already fragile economies is unwise.
-- Texticle, Oct 16 2006


Leavening will have to be adjusted to account for the reduced pressure at altitude, otherwise the CO2 produced by the yeast will over-expand, potentially bursting the gluten bubbles, thereby raining yeasty pitta. (bet you never expected ever to read that sentence)
[+]
-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Apr 11 2012


//Leavening will have to be adjusted to account for the reduced pressure at altitude, otherwise the CO2 produced by the yeast will over-expand, potentially bursting the gluten bubbles, thereby raining yeasty pitta.// By the magic of the "I was saying that years ago" attachment, I did in fact say that years ago. So there!
-- not_morrison_rm, Apr 11 2012


//Leavening will have to be adjusted// Usually, but not right now.
-- mouseposture, Apr 11 2012



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