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#1
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10 hours in a plane! 6 hours too long!
The last time I was flying from London to LA, I couldn't help but
think, having been in that darn plane for 10 hours already, with the guy sitting next to me almost in my face while he tries to sleep sideways in the business class seat, that humanity has to do something about the mode of transportation over long distances. I feel we are way far behind in air travel, it is just too painful. Like the internet has changed our ways of life, I wonder when we will experience radical change in air travel where one can go from LA to London in 4 hours! or LA to Istanbul in 6 hours! Is this going to happen in our life time, you think? I am 33! FirstVoyager |
#2
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10 hours in a plane! 6 hours too long!
First Voyager wrote:
Like the internet has changed our ways of life, I wonder when we will experience radical change in air travel where one can go from LA to London in 4 hours! or LA to Istanbul in 6 hours! Is this going to happen in our life time, you think? I am 33! Yes |
#3
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10 hours in a plane! 6 hours too long!
First Voyager writes:
The last time I was flying from London to LA, I couldn't help but think, having been in that darn plane for 10 hours already, with the guy sitting next to me almost in my face while he tries to sleep sideways in the business class seat, that humanity has to do something about the mode of transportation over long distances. I feel we are way far behind in air travel, it is just too painful. Like the internet has changed our ways of life, I wonder when we will experience radical change in air travel where one can go from LA to London in 4 hours! or LA to Istanbul in 6 hours! Is this going to happen in our life time, you think? I am 33! Air travel used to be considerably faster and far simpler. The need for fuel economy and traffic regulation has forced aircraft to fly more slowly and over less direct routes, and extreme paranoia over security has made it impossible to simply walk onto an aircraft in the way one did thirty or forty years ago. Indeed, one of the fastest aircraft around is also one of the oldest: the Boeing 747. It was designed before oil crises and flies faster than just about any other aircraft currently made. The aircraft designed after the 747 were designed for greater fuel economy, and they achieve that in part by flying more slowly. Notice that the 747 is more streamlined than its alleged future competitor, the A380; it's also faster. The current trend seems to be towards increasing economy to lower costs, rather than improving speed. And the hassles of "security" are not likely to disappear for the foreseeable future. I like flying, but I hate commercial air travel. If one could just hop onto the plane, fly to one's destination at high speed, and hop off, that would be great, but I think those days are gone, perhaps permanently. The improvements over time have been an enormous decrease in ticket prices over the history of commercial aviation, and also a somewhat more casual attitude towards air travel. In the old days, people used to dress up in their Sunday best just to get on a plane, which seems odd in the extreme to me. -- Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail. |
#4
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10 hours in a plane! 6 hours too long!
First Voyager,
In 1854, my 18-year old great-great-great-great grandfather, Gustav Gottfried Theodor Wagner, traveled from Hamburg to New York City on the sailing ship St Charles, a speedy voyage of thirteen weeks. He and his 59 y/o mother were given a little over 8 ounces of muddy water to drink each day, and food that makes me gag to read about. It took all their savings to pay for the voyage. Think about that next time you're feeling stuffy after a few hours on a long flight! -ted Longest flight in a glider -- 9 hours, 10 minutes, spam in a can. |
#5
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10 hours in a plane! 6 hours too long!
On 21 Feb 2007 20:31:05 -0800, "Tuno" wrote:
First Voyager, In 1854, my 18-year old great-great-great-great grandfather, Gustav Gottfried Theodor Wagner, traveled from Hamburg to New York City on the sailing ship St Charles, a speedy voyage of thirteen weeks. He and his 59 y/o mother were given a little over 8 ounces of muddy water to drink each day, and food that makes me gag to read about. It took all their savings to pay for the voyage. Think about that next time you're feeling stuffy after a few hours on a long flight! -ted Longest flight in a glider -- 9 hours, 10 minutes, spam in a can. Way back in 18 and 54 I left The Ukraine out the back door They kept on sniffing me out their way And I got away on the Tennessee bay.... |
#6
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10 hours in a plane! 6 hours too long!
First Voyager schrieb:
The last time I was flying from London to LA, I couldn't help but think, having been in that darn plane for 10 hours already, with the guy sitting next to me almost in my face while he tries to sleep sideways in the business class seat, that humanity has to do something about the mode of transportation over long distances. I feel we are way far behind in air travel, it is just too painful. One might try sleeping bunks like in sleeping cars for very long distances. Won't be cheap. Beds exist (one one level) on government and top executive jets. Regards, ULF |
#7
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10 hours in a plane! 6 hours too long!
First Voyager schrieb:
The last time I was flying from London to LA, I couldn't help but think, having been in that darn plane for 10 hours already, with the guy sitting next to me almost in my face while he tries to sleep sideways in the business class seat, that humanity has to do something about the mode of transportation over long distances. I feel we are way far behind in air travel, it is just too painful. One might try sleeping bunks like in sleeping cars for very long distances. Won't be cheap. Beds exist (one one level) on government and top executive jets and for pilots on very long range jets, IIRC. Regards, ULF |
#8
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10 hours in a plane! 6 hours too long!
Tuno writes:
In 1854, my 18-year old great-great-great-great grandfather, Gustav Gottfried Theodor Wagner, traveled from Hamburg to New York City on the sailing ship St Charles, a speedy voyage of thirteen weeks. He and his 59 y/o mother were given a little over 8 ounces of muddy water to drink each day, and food that makes me gag to read about. It took all their savings to pay for the voyage. Think about that next time you're feeling stuffy after a few hours on a long flight! Just because things were bad in the past doesn't mean that we must accept what we have now. If you don't go quite so far back, air travel used to be better, in the sense that you got where you were going faster, and the conditions were better, and the hassle was less. For me, the hassle (meaning mainly security and to a lesser extent delays) is the biggest problem, and in fact I don't travel at all by air today if I can avoid it, even though I like airplanes. -- Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail. |
#9
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10 hours in a plane! 6 hours too long!
I don't know where you and FirstVoyager do most of your flying, but
the substantial commercial travel I've done in the last ten years (including visits to 15 countries all around the globe) has on the whole been better than the ten before that, even accounting for the increased "hassle" of security, which itself has improved quite a bit in the last year as airports ramp up their TSA stations (the lines are practically gone now at LAX T1). Another major difference I've observed over the last 20 years is simply the number of people flying. It's increased substantially, in large part because it's so much more affordable than it was before deregulation. |
#10
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10 hours in a plane! 6 hours too long!
Mxsmanic wrote:
I like flying, but I hate commercial air travel. If one could just hop onto the plane, fly to one's destination at high speed, and hop off, that would be great, but I think those days are gone, perhaps permanently. Those days are not necessarily gone forever. In my town you CAN just drive to the airport and hop on the plane. They are commuter jets, and go where they go to as fast as any plane that ever flew out regularly from here. Whether they will land and get to the other end fast is the question you raise. Getting onto the plane fast and into the air fast need not be a problem, as it isn't here. All one needs is adequate infrastructure, which we have. Other places can have it too if they wish to. There is no need for security lines, just as there is no need for lines at supermarket checkout. Just have enough scanner machines and people to man them and it will go fast. Ditto for immigration for international flights, etc. Backed up planes on taxiways are the hard bottleneck to fix, but even that could be fixed with improved technology. Doug McDonald |
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