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In 2050, Flight Time From Europe to Australia Will Be 90 Minutes

8 points by dmoney67 14y ago

fmsf 14y ago
Isn't it commonly accepted that when R&D say "10 years" they actually mean "hopefully", "20 years" they mean "we don't know how to do it, but we might discover it" while "30+ years" means science fiction?
- koyote 14y ago
  Relevant xkcd: http://xkcd.com/678/ http://xkcd.com/678/
anonymouz 14y ago
In 2013, Mashable is writing ridiculous headlines.
yk 14y ago
> But he suggested the project could make enough progress to begin attracting private funding in another 10 years and aim for full operations by 2050. So private enterprise will finance some project for 30 years before it starts to become operational? Considering that rocket scientists are usually not idiots, it seems that there could be an actually interesting story behind the "90 Minutes" headline.
symmetricsaurus 14y ago
What is new here? Rocket powered aircraft concepts have been around at least since World War II. This seems to build on proven technology so why should we need to wait until 2050?
- arethuza 14y ago
  The Germans "considered" a sub-orbital bomber for attacking the US in WW2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silbervogel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silbervogel
perlgeek 14y ago
or maybe in 2050 only the super rich can afford to fly, because kerosine got so expensive? Who knows?
TamDenholm 14y ago
Aren't we supposed to have hoverboards and jetpacks by now? All we have is a million photosharing apps...
peteretep 14y ago
Brilliant, I'll be able to dock with it from my flying car :-/
nraynaud 14y ago
you know that the 4h Paris-NY has been killed 10 years ago after more than 20 years of service right ? And what killed it is not technology but economy.
islon 14y ago
Sounds extremely inefficient, not to say it's a rocket. I can't even imagine how hard it would be to land this thing.
hnwh 14y ago
great.. in 2050 I'll be dead..
tobiasu 14y ago
http://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10663/1150_read-4515/ http://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10663/115... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceLiner http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceLiner

8 points by dmoney67 14y ago

fmsf 14y ago

Isn't it commonly accepted that when R&D say "10 years" they actually mean "hopefully", "20 years" they mean "we don't know how to do it, but we might discover it" while "30+ years" means science fiction?

koyote 14y ago
Relevant xkcd: http://xkcd.com/678/ http://xkcd.com/678/

anonymouz 14y ago

In 2013, Mashable is writing ridiculous headlines.

yk 14y ago

> But he suggested the project could make enough progress to begin attracting private funding in another 10 years and aim for full operations by 2050. So private enterprise will finance some project for 30 years before it starts to become operational? Considering that rocket scientists are usually not idiots, it seems that there could be an actually interesting story behind the "90 Minutes" headline.

symmetricsaurus 14y ago

What is new here? Rocket powered aircraft concepts have been around at least since World War II. This seems to build on proven technology so why should we need to wait until 2050?

arethuza 14y ago
The Germans "considered" a sub-orbital bomber for attacking the US in WW2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silbervogel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silbervogel

perlgeek 14y ago

or maybe in 2050 only the super rich can afford to fly, because kerosine got so expensive? Who knows?

TamDenholm 14y ago

Aren't we supposed to have hoverboards and jetpacks by now? All we have is a million photosharing apps...

peteretep 14y ago

Brilliant, I'll be able to dock with it from my flying car :-/

nraynaud 14y ago

you know that the 4h Paris-NY has been killed 10 years ago after more than 20 years of service right ? And what killed it is not technology but economy.

islon 14y ago

Sounds extremely inefficient, not to say it's a rocket. I can't even imagine how hard it would be to land this thing.

hnwh 14y ago

great.. in 2050 I'll be dead..

tobiasu 14y ago

http://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10663/1150_read-4515/ http://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10663/115... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceLiner http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceLiner