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With fuel prices continuing to rise and questions surrounding the state of the airline industry, the prognosticators have begun to prognosticate: What will air travel be like in the future? Many think they have the answer…but some of the answers sound like scenes from Back to the Future or an episode of “The Jetsons:” “‘Globally, no more than 25 airports will be functional by 2025…only one of them in the Pacific Northwest.’ And that airport will be a ‘travelport,’ featuring high-speed electrical rail interconnections designed to carry passengers to and from all points around Cascadia.” (from the Vancouver Sun) The above is from Simon Fraser University professor Anthony Perl, and it’s similar to predictions futurists have been making for nearly a century. Some of the most exciting predictions of the past? Keep reading… |
- Houses will fly by 2001 (Arthur C. Clarke - 1966)
- A major feature of most “modemixers” is the launching pad from which 200-passenger rockets blast off for other continents. For less well-heeled travelers there are SST and hypersonic planes that carry 200 to 300 passengers at speeds up to 4,000 mph. Short trips- between cities less than 1,000 mi. apart-are handled by slower jumbo jets. (James R. Berry - “Life in 2008″ - 1968) Note: While Mr. Berry missed this one, he was pretty spot-on with some other predictions, so be sure to check out his vision of the future.
- The Small Aircraft Transportation System (Sats) offers an alternative solution to the problem of burgeoning demand for air travel. Sats will divert pressure away from the “hub-and-spoke” model of air travel. The vision of Sats is of a nation of air travelers hopping between small airports on a point-to-point, on-demand basis in “air-taxis”. (NASA - 2003)
- Hypersonic engines or “scramjets” (supersonic combustion ramjet) will enable aircraft to travel coast-to-coast in the US in about 30 minutes and from London to Sydney in about 90 minutes. (discussed by BBC - 2003)
- Air travel in the future will be reserved for the rich, many of whom will use “micro jets.” Others will pay big bucks to be transported in larger, fuel efficient aircraft that ply high volume, long-range routes; a new type of passenger aircraft, designed for fuel efficiency — one that’s bat-shaped, resembling a B-52 bomber, with 20-seat rows (Anthony Perl - 2008)
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