In the period between the two world wars the Atlantic crossing was dominated by steam ships. France built the Normandie and the Brits competed with the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth. The aim was to complete the journey in under five days and the cost of travelling first class made travel the domain of the rich and famous.
The airplane originally catered for travel short distances between cities, and it was the arrival of the Douglas DC3 in 1938 that changed everything. Here was a plane with a noise insulated cabin in which every passenger had a comfortable armchair like seat and the journey was attended by an air hostess who could heat a baby's bottle and provide drinks and snacks.
The era of air travel expanded into linking continents of the world and after world war two ended those propeller driven planes were replaced with jet aircraft, and the arrival of Being's 707 changed everything again.. Here was a bigger aircraft with over double the seating capacity of its predecessors and suddenly air travel was within the financial reach of the masses.
For a while it looked like the next big break through would be speed. The world airplane manufacturers looked at the prospect of new aircraft travelling faster than the speed of sound, and quickly discovered that this was commercially noneconomic. Only France and Britain persisted, and that gave us the Concorde. A brilliant aircraft, but it only seated a hundred passengers and in its twenty year lifetime it never delivered a profit. Its travel cost was subsidized on the altar of national pride.
In place of speed the aircraft industry concentrated on size and seating capacity, and that gave us the jumbo jet. Air travel costs plummeted and are enthusiastically enjoyed by all segments of society. The tourist industry became the mainstay of the world economy and that is now threatened by the pollution jet airplanes inflict on a warming world.
There simply is no alternative to air travel to deliver journey speed and sustain that world tourist industry which is the lifeblood of many nations. The airplane industry is shared between the American Boeing and the European Airbus manufacturing companies. Airbus developed a double decker model that packed in more seating, but it proved unpopular and production has been discontinued.
Both manufacturers are racing to solve that pollution problem and seem to be thinking along similar lines. Long distance travel has been the province of four engine jet planes. The new models coming on stream achieve the same distance with just two engines and it is hoped that this may halve the pollution problem.
Airbus recently released their A350-1000 model which seats about 360 passengers and Boeing has test flown its new 777X, both of which feature just two newly developed but more powerful engines which might be the answer to sustaining the jet age.
It looks like we will continue to see those contrails in the sky when passenger jets pass overhead. Unless science develops a personal " transporter " as was featured in the television series" Startrek "
? But until the phrase " Beam me up, Scotty " has relevance in the real world we seem to be stuck with the jet plane !
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