Modern Air Travel: We've Got to Find a Better Way
Yes, yes, it's very safe, statistically. That's great. Glad we've got that pretty much solved. But we've got to do better.
I'm in the airport lounge in Frankfurt. Flight delayed by hours. We flew around in a holding pattern for about an hour before landing, owing to a storm and some issue with the radar tower. (On the bright side--since it would be so ungrateful to whinge after the past few weeks--the sky was uncannily beautiful, and I was highly primed to see in it evidence of life's grandeur and mystery.)
Two days ago someone noted to the Conference (I'm capitalizing that now to make it sound mysterious) that it takes longer to travel by plane than it used to. That's not what we expected. It's not what we would expect if we were making Progress. That's going backward, not forward.
This thread is now open for new ideas about how to create a safe, low-cost, pleasant and rapid long-distance transportation system. The obvious first step is to ditch this whole ridiculous Security Screening Theater system, but let's think bigger than that. I've had it with the airplane. Time for something better. Got any good ideas?
I'll check back with you in a few hours. Please have this solved by then.
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Sep '10
Re: Modern Air Travel: We've Got to Find a Better Way
My idea involves a coyote and a giant sling-shot made by the Acme company. This does not sound that safe I realize, and I don't know how the landings will work, BUT........with a big stimulus grant from Uncle Barak, I think I could make real progress.
Jun '10
Re: Modern Air Travel: We've Got to Find a Better Way
High speed rail??
Jul '10
Re: Modern Air Travel: We've Got to Find a Better Way
Paging Christine O'Donnell...
Dec '10
Re: Modern Air Travel: We've Got to Find a Better Way
On the other hand, a giant slingshot made by Rovio would be much more effective. It would also let travelers strike a blow against the Empire of Thieving Green Pigs.
Dec '10
Re: Modern Air Travel: We've Got to Find a Better Way
Too many that would and do make the regulations that govern our travel are whisked away on helicopters to private or government planes.
My neighbors just climb into any contraption with at least a lawnmower engine and scoot off to another area with a flat spot and willing neighbors, to touch back down. There's always a car to be borrowed at the other end. No traffic jams, no government-enforced security programs, just neighbors keeping track of who comes and goes.
Hardly practical for the world traveler, but the further you get away from this ideal, the greater the inconvenience, and the lesser real security.
Jul '10
Re: Modern Air Travel: We've Got to Find a Better Way
Landing: Skates
Braking: Parachutes
Dec '10
Re: Modern Air Travel: We've Got to Find a Better Way
A tiered system to take short-haul flights out of the air traffic might be helpful. Just because people CAN fly short hops doesn't mean they SHOULD -- not if bus or rail can get them there effectively as fast.
As far as safe, low-cost, pleasant and rapid, it's probably a matter of pick any three. One might envision a ground-based vehicle, a mag-lev train perhaps, doing 300 or 400 mph in a closed tube, but the cost of building the tube would be enormous, and then it would have to be secured against sabotage.
Airplanes move faster and carry more passengers and cargo than airships or helicopters. They aren't restricted to roads or rails and so can support shifts in travel patterns. Until someone perfects teleportation, you really have no alternative to airplanes for rapid long-distance travel at a reasonable cost. The best strategy is to adjust your expectations so that you can find the air travel experience pleasant. (Tell yourself that at least you're being spared using the head in the prow of a clipper ship during a storm while rounding Cape Horn halfway through a three-month voyage.)
Dec '10
Re: Modern Air Travel: We've Got to Find a Better Way
Jimmy Carter
Landing: Skates
Braking: Parachutes · Jun 16 at 2:33pm
Landing + Braking: Bubble wrap pit
May '11
Re: Modern Air Travel: We've Got to Find a Better Way
We need more airports and bigger planes. If the NLRB would leave Boeing alone, the new Dreamlifter would be a start.
Jul '10
Re: Modern Air Travel: We've Got to Find a Better Way
Stuart Creque
Landing + Braking: Bubble wrap pit · Jun 16 at 2:40pm
C'mon, Stuart. Get real. Bubble wrap pit would severely limit destination stops.
Jan '11
Re: Modern Air Travel: We've Got to Find a Better Way
I'll get to work on matter-energy transport just as soon as I'm finished with my time machine.
Dec '10
Re: Modern Air Travel: We've Got to Find a Better Way
Look at it this way, Claire. At least it's not De Gaulle.
Aug '10
Re: Modern Air Travel: We've Got to Find a Better Way
Ambien
Jul '10
Re: Modern Air Travel: We've Got to Find a Better Way
All I know is that gaining some sort of preferred status with an airline's frequent flyer program makes life a lot more comfortable: you get free checked bags, first-class upgrades, preferred boarding and preferred seating.
Also, be sure you travel during hours when your airline offers curbside check-in: your bags are whisked away by the skycap and you march directly past the counter, boarding pass in hand.
Now, if you're utterly shameless, specify that you need wheelchair assistance when you book your flight. That way, the skycap trundles you right past the TSA line, all the way to your boarding gate - and you get priority boarding.
Bring your own healthy snacks, a good book, Bose Quiet Comfort headphones and some Ambien. Those miles will just melt away.
As for noisy children, Ive always preferred a garotte; even these days, TSA won't confiscate a stout length of clothesline.
Oct '10
Re: Modern Air Travel: We've Got to Find a Better Way
The current airport screening system needs to get over their ego trip which mucks up the works.Would like to see non stop flights return, there is where something the free market model comes up short.But that is neither here nor there...The Star Trek zap you from here to there thing would be interesting.The scary thing is if the Government ran it, the contract would go to the lowest bidder.If that were possible what economic impact would that have today as peice of workable Tech ?
Oct '10
Re: Modern Air Travel: We've Got to Find a Better Way
RE, Kenneth. As for noisy children, Ive always preferred a garotte; even these days, TSA won't confiscate a stout length of clothesline.
Reply is, Duct tape and plastic bags....
Mar '11
Re: Modern Air Travel: We've Got to Find a Better Way
Agreed, but it would be nice to have only one or two such statuses (stati?). On my last trip a few weeks ago, we went through about 37 tiers of preferred service -- diamond, platinum, gold, gold preferred, gold unpreferred, diamond platinum gold deluxe with a cherry on top, comical-historical-tragical...
Anyway, by the time she boarded and they got around to cattle class, the plane had already taken off.
May '10
Re: Modern Air Travel: We've Got to Find a Better Way
We must tesser.
Dec '10
Re: Modern Air Travel: We've Got to Find a Better Way
Acme Slingshot in partnership with Trajectory Solutions Inc. is competing for a lucrative government contract under the Future Longterm Aviation Plan (FLAP). Company spokespreditor, Wyle E. Coyote, announced that a prototype currently under development is expected to be available for acceptance testing in mid 2019. Safety concerns uncovered during initial tests at their desert launch facility are expected to be resolved.
Dec '10
Re: Modern Air Travel: We've Got to Find a Better Way
I'm thinking Hypersonic Rocket Powered Zeppelins.
With no Nazis kicking around to crap up the works this time, I bet they'll go over big time.