8 ms·

Slightly unrelated but makes me wonder how different would be the airline industry nowadays if Musk had launched a airline company at the same time he launched

Slightly unrelated but makes me wonder how different would be the airline industry nowadays if Musk had launched a airline company at the same time he launched SpaceX. How different would it be to take a plane and travel across the world.

M3L0NM4N 4y ago
The same but the screens on the back of the seats would be slightly larger.
- robertlagrant 4y ago
  The pilot's controls will all be touchscreen :)
  - WithinReason 4y ago
    The horror
sabjut 4y ago
"If you want to be a Millionaire, start with a billion dollars and launch a new airline." - Richard Branson
- notahacker 4y ago
  Yep. My feeling is that this story involves Elon Musk losing his completely conventional fleet of aircraft and slightly quirky service to creditors and wishing that he'd set up a space company or a 140 characters company instead...
- ggregoire 4y ago
  I mean, you could turn the quote into "If you want to be a Millionaire, start with a billion dollars and launch a new rocket company." Not sure what are SpaceX financials but Musk seems ok.
unsupp0rted 4y ago
The worst part about flying is the part before and after the plane ride, when you get stressed about what time to show up, going through security, sitting around, waiting to board, landing and waiting for the doors to open, taking a bus to the terminal, waiting for a carousel for 5 ~ 60 minutes, etc. If someone could solve that for me affordably, I can handle the sitting on an airplane in economy class for 15 hours bit. Although yes: having high speed, low latency internet for those 15 hours would make it much more pleasant.
- mytailorisrich 4y ago
  The solution exists but unfortunately for your affordability criterion it means flying first class.
  - laundermaf 4y ago
    First class has its own levels I think, just because you spend 10k for a flight you're not going with a limo directly under the plane without any wait in the airport. Some airports do have shortcuts though, that's true.
- laundermaf 4y ago
  Isn't PreCheck supposed to lessen that a bit? I don't think "security" is going to be lessened in our lifetime, if anything it can only get worse. Disrupting the space would take an insane amount of money you don't have. People who have money, can fly private.
  - panick21_ 4y ago
    Everybody getting PreCheck and all those other features is basically lessening security, but only if you pay.
    - ceejayoz 4y ago
      It’s not lessening security.
simondotau 4y ago
Do you mean an airline (end service provider) or an airplane manufacturer? The latter would be more analogous to what Elon has done with SpaceX. If the former, I couldn’t imagine anything more deathly boring than this, working insanely hard to run a commodity service that’s fundamentally identical to all of your competitors other than on the margins. It would be like wondering how different the car hire industry would be if Musk had launched a hire company at the same time as Tesla.
Cthulhu_ 4y ago
Not very I'm sure; for space tech, they tried Concorde, too expensive. for electric tech, companies are working on electric airplanes but that too is still far away - despite the huge drop in the cost of battery tech for example that in part Tesla was responsible for.
- panick21_ 4y ago
  Electric planes are not 'far' away. They will see service for shorter routes this decade most likely.
LightG 4y ago
Yes, maybe he would then have had a legitimate reason to use the term 'Autopilot'.
panick21_ 4y ago
What Musk should have done is create a company that is owned 50% by Tesla, 50% by SpaceX and they should be developing a electric airplane. If you are willing to do the necessary investment, I think there is huge potential to build an airplane that goes significantly further then planes like the Aviation Alice or what Heart Aerospace ES-30 is doing.
- Pasorrijer 4y ago
  Tesla is already half solving this problem indirectly through their batter research, buuut the biggest issue with electric aircraft is the energy density of batteries isn't, and isn't projected, to get anywhere near what it needs to be to handle long range flying. Many industry experts believe we're going to see an electrification but in tiers. Pure electric in the regional space, with more regional options than now on smaller planes, followed by hydrogen or alternative fuels powering the mid-range. Long range may go to hydrogen or alternatives, but the density is still such that jet fuel will rein on the longest flights for the next 10-15 years minimum.
  - panick21_ 4y ago
    The cool thing is that with every 50km you can unlock new locations. The ES-30 flying from Zürich can get you to important cities in France, Germany, Italy and Austria. With they hybrid mode almost to Paris. In Europe you have great trains but in the US this could be a game changer in all the big metro areas, North East, Florida, Texas Triangle, Southern California, Mid West/Canada. Pushing on that whole stack you can get out more then the ES-30. There is potential for things like flying higher, using PRANTL Wing, Flying wing structure, batteries as part of the structure and so on. A startup wouldn't risk doing any of these, but a company like SpaceX/Tesla could easily invest the capital to do this.
Gasp0de 4y ago
Elon Musk has a strong vision for environmentally friendly means of transportation, and I don't think that is currently possible with planes.
- lm28469 4y ago
  > environmentally friendly means of transportation Hate to break it to you but displacing three tonnes of metal and batteries to move your 80kg ass to Walmart isn't environmentally friendly in any way
  - bottlepalm 4y ago
    If the energy to build and power the batteries all came from sunlight then why not?
    - lm28469 4y ago
      And methane is made of unicorn farts right ? Producing one tonne of lithium requires digging out 500 tonnes of earth. We don't mine lithium with solar panels and horses, it's an extremely energy intensive and polluting industry, and that's only a tiny part of the equation, building the car already is already extremely polluting Is it better than straight up burning dino juice ? Sure, is it sustainable and eco friendly as it is presented today ? not at all And that's not even talking about the fact that a big part of car pollution is due to tires, heavier/faster accelerating cars = eat through tires more quickly than lighter/slower vehicles There is no shame in buying a tesla but don't feel like you're saving/helping the planet, this is environmentally friendly the same way having 1 terminal cancer is healthier than having 2 terminal cancers, you might die in 6 months instead of 5 but you're still utterly fucked
      - bottlepalm 4y ago
        Why can't lithium be dug with solar power? California generates 10 gigawatts of it on a good day. Tire technology is also improving to be eco friendly - https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=334 https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=... The system doesn't go from bad to good overnight. Every piece needs to be updated, vehicles that don't put out fumes is just one piece of that system. You're argument reads, 'well the entire system isn't perfect yet, so that negates all improvements to the components' Give me a break. Electric cars are a huge step forward. One of many steps that need to be taken. The world will move forward while you sit on the sidelines and complain.
1123581321 4y ago
“I’ve got an idea for an electric jet.” -Elon Musk, Iron Man 2.
zx10rse 4y ago
He does not need to start an airline company, he is going to change the airline industry if fingers crossed we will live to see Starship Earth to Earth happening - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqE-ultsWt0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqE-ultsWt0 And what we will be even better a strong competition, so that kind of flights will be available to all.
- lm28469 4y ago
  People believing in this are the same people who believed we'd have flying cars by the year 2000. I can't believe people are falling for such blatant sci fi marketing bullshit I bet in 30 years we'll still be arguing that "fully autonomous cars are just around the corner" and "Musk will put a colony on Mars in 5 years"
  - zaroth 4y ago
    I hope you’re wrong. In 30 years another couple million people will have died in car accidents if we haven’t mostly solved autonomous driving by then.
slac 4y ago
It would likely run on vapor and drama. Seriously, the overpromise and under-deliver from most Elon endeavours is getting out of control.

M3L0NM4N 4y ago

The same but the screens on the back of the seats would be slightly larger.

robertlagrant 4y ago
The pilot's controls will all be touchscreen :)
- WithinReason 4y ago
  The horror

sabjut 4y ago

"If you want to be a Millionaire, start with a billion dollars and launch a new airline." - Richard Branson

notahacker 4y ago
Yep. My feeling is that this story involves Elon Musk losing his completely conventional fleet of aircraft and slightly quirky service to creditors and wishing that he'd set up a space company or a 140 characters company instead...
ggregoire 4y ago
I mean, you could turn the quote into "If you want to be a Millionaire, start with a billion dollars and launch a new rocket company." Not sure what are SpaceX financials but Musk seems ok.

unsupp0rted 4y ago

The worst part about flying is the part before and after the plane ride, when you get stressed about what time to show up, going through security, sitting around, waiting to board, landing and waiting for the doors to open, taking a bus to the terminal, waiting for a carousel for 5 ~ 60 minutes, etc. If someone could solve that for me affordably, I can handle the sitting on an airplane in economy class for 15 hours bit. Although yes: having high speed, low latency internet for those 15 hours would make it much more pleasant.

mytailorisrich 4y ago
The solution exists but unfortunately for your affordability criterion it means flying first class.
- laundermaf 4y ago
  First class has its own levels I think, just because you spend 10k for a flight you're not going with a limo directly under the plane without any wait in the airport. Some airports do have shortcuts though, that's true.
laundermaf 4y ago
Isn't PreCheck supposed to lessen that a bit? I don't think "security" is going to be lessened in our lifetime, if anything it can only get worse. Disrupting the space would take an insane amount of money you don't have. People who have money, can fly private.
- panick21_ 4y ago
  Everybody getting PreCheck and all those other features is basically lessening security, but only if you pay.
  - ceejayoz 4y ago
    It’s not lessening security.

simondotau 4y ago

Do you mean an airline (end service provider) or an airplane manufacturer? The latter would be more analogous to what Elon has done with SpaceX. If the former, I couldn’t imagine anything more deathly boring than this, working insanely hard to run a commodity service that’s fundamentally identical to all of your competitors other than on the margins. It would be like wondering how different the car hire industry would be if Musk had launched a hire company at the same time as Tesla.

Cthulhu_ 4y ago

Not very I'm sure; for space tech, they tried Concorde, too expensive. for electric tech, companies are working on electric airplanes but that too is still far away - despite the huge drop in the cost of battery tech for example that in part Tesla was responsible for.

panick21_ 4y ago
Electric planes are not 'far' away. They will see service for shorter routes this decade most likely.

LightG 4y ago

Yes, maybe he would then have had a legitimate reason to use the term 'Autopilot'.

panick21_ 4y ago

What Musk should have done is create a company that is owned 50% by Tesla, 50% by SpaceX and they should be developing a electric airplane. If you are willing to do the necessary investment, I think there is huge potential to build an airplane that goes significantly further then planes like the Aviation Alice or what Heart Aerospace ES-30 is doing.

Pasorrijer 4y ago
Tesla is already half solving this problem indirectly through their batter research, buuut the biggest issue with electric aircraft is the energy density of batteries isn't, and isn't projected, to get anywhere near what it needs to be to handle long range flying. Many industry experts believe we're going to see an electrification but in tiers. Pure electric in the regional space, with more regional options than now on smaller planes, followed by hydrogen or alternative fuels powering the mid-range. Long range may go to hydrogen or alternatives, but the density is still such that jet fuel will rein on the longest flights for the next 10-15 years minimum.
- panick21_ 4y ago
  The cool thing is that with every 50km you can unlock new locations. The ES-30 flying from Zürich can get you to important cities in France, Germany, Italy and Austria. With they hybrid mode almost to Paris. In Europe you have great trains but in the US this could be a game changer in all the big metro areas, North East, Florida, Texas Triangle, Southern California, Mid West/Canada. Pushing on that whole stack you can get out more then the ES-30. There is potential for things like flying higher, using PRANTL Wing, Flying wing structure, batteries as part of the structure and so on. A startup wouldn't risk doing any of these, but a company like SpaceX/Tesla could easily invest the capital to do this.

Gasp0de 4y ago

Elon Musk has a strong vision for environmentally friendly means of transportation, and I don't think that is currently possible with planes.

lm28469 4y ago
> environmentally friendly means of transportation Hate to break it to you but displacing three tonnes of metal and batteries to move your 80kg ass to Walmart isn't environmentally friendly in any way
- bottlepalm 4y ago
  If the energy to build and power the batteries all came from sunlight then why not?
  - lm28469 4y ago
    And methane is made of unicorn farts right ? Producing one tonne of lithium requires digging out 500 tonnes of earth. We don't mine lithium with solar panels and horses, it's an extremely energy intensive and polluting industry, and that's only a tiny part of the equation, building the car already is already extremely polluting Is it better than straight up burning dino juice ? Sure, is it sustainable and eco friendly as it is presented today ? not at all And that's not even talking about the fact that a big part of car pollution is due to tires, heavier/faster accelerating cars = eat through tires more quickly than lighter/slower vehicles There is no shame in buying a tesla but don't feel like you're saving/helping the planet, this is environmentally friendly the same way having 1 terminal cancer is healthier than having 2 terminal cancers, you might die in 6 months instead of 5 but you're still utterly fucked
    - bottlepalm 4y ago
      Why can't lithium be dug with solar power? California generates 10 gigawatts of it on a good day. Tire technology is also improving to be eco friendly - https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=334 https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=... The system doesn't go from bad to good overnight. Every piece needs to be updated, vehicles that don't put out fumes is just one piece of that system. You're argument reads, 'well the entire system isn't perfect yet, so that negates all improvements to the components' Give me a break. Electric cars are a huge step forward. One of many steps that need to be taken. The world will move forward while you sit on the sidelines and complain.

1123581321 4y ago

“I’ve got an idea for an electric jet.” -Elon Musk, Iron Man 2.

zx10rse 4y ago

He does not need to start an airline company, he is going to change the airline industry if fingers crossed we will live to see Starship Earth to Earth happening - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqE-ultsWt0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqE-ultsWt0 And what we will be even better a strong competition, so that kind of flights will be available to all.

lm28469 4y ago
People believing in this are the same people who believed we'd have flying cars by the year 2000. I can't believe people are falling for such blatant sci fi marketing bullshit I bet in 30 years we'll still be arguing that "fully autonomous cars are just around the corner" and "Musk will put a colony on Mars in 5 years"
- zaroth 4y ago
  I hope you’re wrong. In 30 years another couple million people will have died in car accidents if we haven’t mostly solved autonomous driving by then.

slac 4y ago

It would likely run on vapor and drama. Seriously, the overpromise and under-deliver from most Elon endeavours is getting out of control.