3 ms·
"Transatlantic flight will never be commercially viable, we conclude based on careful study of several aircraft designs from the 1920s"
by nutrientharvest 18d ago
"Transatlantic flight will never be commercially viable, we conclude based on careful study of several aircraft designs from the 1920s"
- ponector 18d agoHow about supersonic flight?
- ggreer 18d agoI don't think that's a useful comparison. Supersonic military planes have been common for decades. We don't have supersonic passenger planes because the FAA has banned supersonic flight over land since 1973, though the agency is planning on replacing it with a noise standard. Also the original supersonic passenger aircraft were government-sponsored tech demos, not financially sustainable products. With updated laws & modern technology (cameras instead of tilting noses, more efficient engines without afterburners, lighter materials), we could have viable supersonic passenger flight.
- zeroonetwothree 18d agoTechnology keeps advancing in a domain until suddenly it doesn’t. Where are my flying cars?
- krapp 18d agoThey're called helicopters.
- freejazz 18d agoAnd what since then?
- pixl97 18d agoThis has the smell of "Why don't I have a faster horse". Why no flying cars. Because objects have mass and inertia and people are incredibly stupid. Making a flying car has been done. Making a flying car not be a weapon of mass destruction is very, very hard. Also: https://www.txdot.gov/about/newsroom/statewide/air-taxi-testing-taking-flight-in-texas.html https://www.txdot.gov/about/newsroom/statewide/air-taxi-test...
- freejazz 18d agoYou're making my point for me, surprised you don't realize that...
- pixl97 18d agoBecause you don't fully understand your own point... You look at science fiction and say "why didn't I get flying cars" and not "why didn't most science fiction predict a global always on network that put the furthest places away from you a few microseconds away from audio, video, or any other type of information that can be digitally encoded. Trying to use flying cars as a gotcha is missing that flying cars aren't near as useful as one would think in relation to their costs. Moving information has become far more useful than moving objects long distances quickly, especially humans.
- freejazz 18d ago> You look at science fiction and say "why didn't I get flying cars" I definitely don't, and you're definitely not getting my point, but I'm amused that you've instead double down on somehow getting it more than me...