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The future of flying is not flying? Some solution. Let's try a future that is actually a bit more futuristic, shall we? Imagine, small electric hybrid fuel cel

The future of flying is not flying? Some solution. Let's try a future that is actually a bit more futuristic, shall we? Imagine, small electric hybrid fuel cell planes that carry less than 50 passengers flying point to point to municipal airports instead of just major hubs. Roomy accommodations, coach is almost as nice a 1st class is today. And the cost is half. The problem with the future of flying is not environmental or technical. The above is possible. The problem is regulatory (and greed).

exDM69 12y ago
Call me a lunatic but: Airships! I want to see airships, zeppelins, blimps come back. They can fly passengers or cargo faster than seafaring ships or travelling on land, while being able to take off and land in a smaller area than an airport runway. The speeds of airships were around 120-200+ km/h, making it comparable with a slow flying piston powered aircraft of the same era. A flight on the Hindenburg was more luxurious than flying in an airplane has ever been. There was a dining salon and a smoking lounge and plenty of room to walk around. Airships were capable of transporting close to 100 passengers. They can fly closer to a big city than an airplane can, reducing the total time of travel when you don't need to go to the airport, far away from the cities. Anecdote: my home town has a futuristic art deco hotel built in the 1930s, which has a mast that was designed as a mooring point for airships, right in the middle of the city. Unfortunately that has never been used to my knowledge. Airships might also be (partially) powered by electricity and have very large surface area that could be used for solar panels. Unfortunately, I can't see this happening any time soon. There are some ventures into building modern airships, with mixed success. I recon modern people are too impatient to travel 4-5 times slower than what they're used to. Transporting cargo overseas is so cheap that it's difficult to compete with. And whether it makes any kind of economic sense is another question.
- ghaff 12y ago
  >There are some ventures into building modern airships, with mixed success. Where mixed ~= no. The luxury of pre-WW II zeppelin travel is something of a red herring. To the degree there were a market for travel at the equivalent cost of trans-Atlantic Zeppelin travel, you could pretty much have it in a wide body aircraft. After all, Pan Am's original 747s had a first class lounge upstairs which today is (universally, as far as I know) used for additional business class seating. High-end seating on airlines like Emirates is pretty luxurious today but the modern preference tends toward individual suites rather than space given to common areas. >I recon modern people are too impatient to travel 4-5 times slower than what they're used to. Well, even if the travel is relatively luxurious I don't have a burning desire to spend a couple of days in a relatively confined space although your general point is probably true. On the other hand, I'm sure lots of the people who travelled by ocean liner or zeppelin would have jumped at the chance to go from London or Berlin to New York in under 10 hours.
- amyjess 12y ago
  Airships are cool and all, and I love the dieselpunk style, but just for the sake of argument, let's think bigger and more modern. I want a Helicarrier.
rebootthesystem 12y ago
> and greed You need to stop reading/watching material that promotes this nonsense about business and, perhaps, try running a business for a while. What this ideology calls "greed" is what every business, from the local small bakery shop to a multinational has to do: Optimize for profits while delivering product that satisfies customer needs at the right value and quality level. If they miss either or both of the last two they lose business to competitors who do a better job. Was Steve Jobs greedy? It's funny how when that example is brought up those characterizing big business as being greedy suffer a short circuit in the brain. Now, wait a minute, before you down-vote, Steve Jobs and Apple sell some of the most grotesquely overpriced tech in the world and the company is exploding with cash. Ain't that greedy? Oh, you say their hardware isn't grotesquely overpriced because of the value and quality it offers? BTW, I own a bunch of it myself. PC's as well. Not overpriced? OK. I guess the company OPTIMIZED their offerings to FIT WHAT THEIR CUSTOMERS WANT. How about that? They are not greedy after all. They are doing what every company large and small has to do: Optimize for profits while delivering product that satisfies customer needs at the right quality level. If they miss either or both of the last two they lose business to competitors who do a better job. Yup. Greedy bastards.
- bnegreve 12y ago
  > What this ideology calls "greed" is what every business, from the local small bakery shop to a multinational has to do: Optimize for profits while delivering product that satisfies customer needs at the right value and quality level. I don't believe that every single business in the word cares about "delivering products that satisfies customer needs at the right value and quality level", and I doubt that you can find evidence that would convince me.
  - rebootthesystem 12y ago
    You misunderstand how this works. They don't have to care. A business isn't some unified organism that cares. Some will explicitly go after a market segment interested in a certain value/quality proposition while others migt not target a specific ratio bit are placed there by the market itself. Apple and Mercedes are not interested in the buyer looking for the lowest price who cares not about quality. They specifically put out product designed for a high end audience. They, we might be able to say, care. Harbor Freight either aims for the low end or is taken there auto-magically by the audience they have cultivated. Most people I know think of them as providers of cheap crap that won't last. Once people classify a business on a value/quality scale it is virtually impossible for that brand to do well at a higher value/quality level. Hence companies such as Honda launching upscale brands like Acura. Today nobody would pay Acura prices for a Honda even though there probably isn't a significant and objective quality difference between the two. The point is that every company optimizes for profits in the context of the value/quality their audience wants. Some do it explicitly and others do it as a result of their audience pushing and pulling them there.
guelo 12y ago
> electric hybrid fuel cell Sounds heavy and underpowered.

exDM69 12y ago

Call me a lunatic but: Airships! I want to see airships, zeppelins, blimps come back. They can fly passengers or cargo faster than seafaring ships or travelling on land, while being able to take off and land in a smaller area than an airport runway. The speeds of airships were around 120-200+ km/h, making it comparable with a slow flying piston powered aircraft of the same era. A flight on the Hindenburg was more luxurious than flying in an airplane has ever been. There was a dining salon and a smoking lounge and plenty of room to walk around. Airships were capable of transporting close to 100 passengers. They can fly closer to a big city than an airplane can, reducing the total time of travel when you don't need to go to the airport, far away from the cities. Anecdote: my home town has a futuristic art deco hotel built in the 1930s, which has a mast that was designed as a mooring point for airships, right in the middle of the city. Unfortunately that has never been used to my knowledge. Airships might also be (partially) powered by electricity and have very large surface area that could be used for solar panels. Unfortunately, I can't see this happening any time soon. There are some ventures into building modern airships, with mixed success. I recon modern people are too impatient to travel 4-5 times slower than what they're used to. Transporting cargo overseas is so cheap that it's difficult to compete with. And whether it makes any kind of economic sense is another question.

ghaff 12y ago
>There are some ventures into building modern airships, with mixed success. Where mixed ~= no. The luxury of pre-WW II zeppelin travel is something of a red herring. To the degree there were a market for travel at the equivalent cost of trans-Atlantic Zeppelin travel, you could pretty much have it in a wide body aircraft. After all, Pan Am's original 747s had a first class lounge upstairs which today is (universally, as far as I know) used for additional business class seating. High-end seating on airlines like Emirates is pretty luxurious today but the modern preference tends toward individual suites rather than space given to common areas. >I recon modern people are too impatient to travel 4-5 times slower than what they're used to. Well, even if the travel is relatively luxurious I don't have a burning desire to spend a couple of days in a relatively confined space although your general point is probably true. On the other hand, I'm sure lots of the people who travelled by ocean liner or zeppelin would have jumped at the chance to go from London or Berlin to New York in under 10 hours.
amyjess 12y ago
Airships are cool and all, and I love the dieselpunk style, but just for the sake of argument, let's think bigger and more modern. I want a Helicarrier.

rebootthesystem 12y ago

> and greed You need to stop reading/watching material that promotes this nonsense about business and, perhaps, try running a business for a while. What this ideology calls "greed" is what every business, from the local small bakery shop to a multinational has to do: Optimize for profits while delivering product that satisfies customer needs at the right value and quality level. If they miss either or both of the last two they lose business to competitors who do a better job. Was Steve Jobs greedy? It's funny how when that example is brought up those characterizing big business as being greedy suffer a short circuit in the brain. Now, wait a minute, before you down-vote, Steve Jobs and Apple sell some of the most grotesquely overpriced tech in the world and the company is exploding with cash. Ain't that greedy? Oh, you say their hardware isn't grotesquely overpriced because of the value and quality it offers? BTW, I own a bunch of it myself. PC's as well. Not overpriced? OK. I guess the company OPTIMIZED their offerings to FIT WHAT THEIR CUSTOMERS WANT. How about that? They are not greedy after all. They are doing what every company large and small has to do: Optimize for profits while delivering product that satisfies customer needs at the right quality level. If they miss either or both of the last two they lose business to competitors who do a better job. Yup. Greedy bastards.

bnegreve 12y ago
> What this ideology calls "greed" is what every business, from the local small bakery shop to a multinational has to do: Optimize for profits while delivering product that satisfies customer needs at the right value and quality level. I don't believe that every single business in the word cares about "delivering products that satisfies customer needs at the right value and quality level", and I doubt that you can find evidence that would convince me.
- rebootthesystem 12y ago
  You misunderstand how this works. They don't have to care. A business isn't some unified organism that cares. Some will explicitly go after a market segment interested in a certain value/quality proposition while others migt not target a specific ratio bit are placed there by the market itself. Apple and Mercedes are not interested in the buyer looking for the lowest price who cares not about quality. They specifically put out product designed for a high end audience. They, we might be able to say, care. Harbor Freight either aims for the low end or is taken there auto-magically by the audience they have cultivated. Most people I know think of them as providers of cheap crap that won't last. Once people classify a business on a value/quality scale it is virtually impossible for that brand to do well at a higher value/quality level. Hence companies such as Honda launching upscale brands like Acura. Today nobody would pay Acura prices for a Honda even though there probably isn't a significant and objective quality difference between the two. The point is that every company optimizes for profits in the context of the value/quality their audience wants. Some do it explicitly and others do it as a result of their audience pushing and pulling them there.

guelo 12y ago

> electric hybrid fuel cell Sounds heavy and underpowered.