"Jetting It Wrong" - Commentary by Tony Seton

Jetting It Wrong

Airbus unveiled it’s latest passenger jet yesterday, the double-decker A380. The stats on it are kinda staggering. For instance, its wings are almost as wide as a football field is long and it’s tail reaches as a high as a seven-story building. It can carry 555 passengers further on less fuel with less environmental damage than the current widebodies. It cost $13 billion to develop. Airbus already has a bunch of orders from airlines all around the globe and expects to get into the black on the project in three years.

Of course, the plane hasn’t actually flown yet, but the developing nations -- France, Germany, Britain, and Spain -- are tickled to smiles about Airbus not only being the world’s leading aircraft producer but also pioneering new designs. Said Jacques Chirac, the A380 "is for all of us a moment of emotion and pride" and "a great success for Europe." The German chancellor declared the new aircraft is a "triumph of European science and European engineering."

Yeah, well, maybe. These new planes, which may feature double beds in first class, shops casinos, and a gym -- no, I’m not kidding -- aren’t scheduled to be airborne until aught-six. A number of airports are trying to reconfigure to be able to handle the planes, as in how do you get all those people and their baggage on and off these behemoths.

Boeing, which was eclipsed by Airbus in total sales two years ago, insists that the demand for super-sized planes is limited. I’m not an expert in these matters, but it sounds a little like sour grapes. My bet is that Boeing execs have been sucking profits out of the company rather than investing in R-‘n-D.

And here’s where I get off on this story. Bigger and better is often grander, but it already seems as though there are many too many people on planes today. More to the point, it seems as though we should have figured out how to fly all those folks faster. Much faster. We’re still cruising along at less than 600 miles an hour, which means that many destinations are too many hours away.

I know that traveling at the speed of sound and beyond creates sound waves that are problematic on the ground. But instead of spending billions on building ever larger aircraft, why aren’t we investing in new technologies that can deliver people faster? Surely we are not condemned to snail’s pace travel forever. Surely there are technological solutions to be discovered, and we should heading in that direction.

And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.