X-Message-Number: 20897
Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 10:41:54 -0500
From: "Raphael T. Haftka" <>
Subject: Is it stupid to avoid building larger and faster air transports

Stupidity is a word that should be used with some caution


Yvan wrote:

>So we are at the end of aircraft progress, not because we have hit the limit
>of physical possibilities, no because there is no more technological
>solutions, not because there is no more potential market to explore, not even
>because there is no buyers able to take a financial risk, not because there
>is a world conspiracy, simply because economy now work as flowing water: a
>small local wall can forbid a large river to flow in a deep valley 10 foot
>away from its border. Water can't see away, the market and the society in its
>whole can't do it anymore. This has a name: mere stupidity.

As an aerospace engineer, I must protest against Yvan's facile 
characterization. It is good that the market place is blocking ideas for 
larger and faster transports. At the moment, the main difficulty in air 
travel is the hub and spoke system, where you have to take three to five 
airplanes in order to get from point A to point B. For example, if I wanted 
to visit Yvan, I would have to fly to Atlanta, then change to New York, 
then fly to Paris, and then possibly fly to the nearest airport to where he 
lives. So it is good that the new and exciting things in airplanes are 
happening at the low end. For example, my home town is being served by a 50 
passenger jet, which is a big improvement over the propeller driven 
airplanes that we used five years ago. We are now negotiating for direct 
service to New York.

Larger airplanes will just extend artificially the misery of the system, 
and the Sonic Cruiser is a luxury that will become profitable after we will 
have solved the more pressing needs of passengers.


Raphael (Rafi) Haftka, Distinguished Professor          
University of 
Florida                                           phone:352-392-9595
Department of Mechanical and                            fax: -7303
Aerospace 
Engineering,                                  www.mae.ufl.edu/~haftka
Gainesville, FL 32611

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