X-Message-Number: 20919 From: Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 13:21:58 EST Subject: Re: CryoNet #20895 - #20905 --part1_11d.1d604134.2b5c46c6_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Raphael, I am five miles from the Orly Paris airport :-) If I had to desing a global transport system, I would start with electric cars with energy storage in an inertial flywheel and energy generation by a small fuell cell (or internal combustion engine burning propane before the cells are up to the job). For travel beyond 30 miles or so, I would load them on shuttle fast trains. For long distance, 300 miles or more, I would load them on airplanes or airships or ecranoplans (Hoovercrafts looking as airplanes). So to visit me you would take your car, drive to the train station, put your car in a shuttle train, drive some miles to a big airplane, and at orly drive some mile anew to get to my home. All of that without openning your car door if you want. > 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. > Yvan Bozzonetti. --part1_11d.1d604134.2b5c46c6_boundary Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=20919