This whole airplane security thing is getting out of hand.
You know, sometimes events have unintended consequences. What I'm referring too is the fact that I just read on the news that some airlines are now not allowing passengers to get up and move around the cabin during the one hour prior to landing.
Is that bullshit or what?
It sure is.
What are they going to do next? Put everybody in straight jackets in order to prevent 'a bomber' from doing something bad? I mean.....it's getting more and more ridiculous everytime somebody does something bad.
I wonder what would happen if a terrorist somehow used a roll of toilet paper to pass a terrorist note? I guess the airlines would stop putting toilet paper on planes.
Anyway, my point about unintended consequences is that the security situation on airplanes might get so ridiculous that people simply find some other way to travel. There are such things as trains and buses you know.
And personally, I've always felt that lighter-than-air(LTA) flight had a lot of unrealized potential. Just the idea of floating quietly (i.e. reasonably quietly.....compared to airplane engines) through the sky as the world passes below.......that always sounded great to me.
You know, LTA travel was very popular back before the disasters of the Hindenburg, the Shenandoah and Akron (Google it). However, there were maybe three major problems that caused it's demise.
- A few of the ships crashed because of weather.
- A few of them blew up and burned because of flammability problems with the hydrogen.
- A few of them cracked up because of stress caused by weather.
Well, I think things have changed.
- We're better at predicting weather now.
- There's more helium around now.......or, as I've always felt, we might be able to find some process to actually generate it artificially.
- Our engineering is better now.
The fact is that LTA flight is already practical notwithstanding a few minor issues. It's just the 'public perception' based on media hype and old facts that keep it from coming back. Several companies already have made, or have plans, for thoroughly operable types of craft. I wrote about one of them last year (it's here somewhere).
Or what about 'mag-lev trains....i.e. those trains that float along the track on a magnetic field generated somehow by electricity?
All I know is that airline travel is already a super pain-in-the-ass with this airport screening stuff. Now it's going to get even worse. People are going to start looking for alternatives.
Recent Comments