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Air travel is in a rut – is there any hope of recapturing the romance of flying?

Air travel is in a rut – is there any hope of recapturing the romance of flying?

Amelia Earhart broke a transcontinental speed record over 90 years ago, in the month of July 1933, when she flew her iconic Red Lockheed Vega from Los Angeles to New Jersey in just 17 hours seven and a half minutes. The previous same year, Earhart flew as an observer on the Northwest Airways winter flight across the U.S., testing the possibilities of the possibility of a “Northern Transcontinental” route.

Because early aircraft weren’t able to achieve high altitudes, the early airplanes navigated over dangerous peaks as well as the unstable weather patterns that mountain ranges contributed to. One co-pilot recalls the flight in terms of “seat-of-the-pants flying across the Dakota and Montana plains and through, over and around the Western mountain ranges.”

What is the current state of air travel? in comparison?

I’ve researched the technology of airplanesairport design, and the attitudes of people regarding air travel and have observed how certain aspects of flying appear to have been calcified over time.

Long-distance flights increased rapidly between the 1930s and early 1960s and cut the hours spent in the skies by a quarter. In the last sixty years, the length of these flights has remained about the same. In the meantime, the system that is associated with air travel has become more intricate, leaving passengers in tense seats on the runway before or after the flight.

Coast-to-coast air travel is at an impasse, although there are ongoing attempts to enhance this type of travel.

Another ordinary miraculous

Transcontinental flight journeys are distinctly different from the time of Earhart’s record-breaking flights of exploration Today, travelers take these journeys for granted and are often surprised to find them to be nothing but a chore.

In the year 2018, travel blogger Ravi Ghelani went over in great detail the details of a United Airlines flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Seattle, roughly on the same northern route Earhart traveled in 1933.

For Ghelani, who was in the first level, it was not cold or the terrain that proved the most difficult aspect of his trip. It was a flimsy blanket provided by the airline, which “barely qualified as one – it was very thin, very scratchy.”

Amelia Earhart grins in Newark, N.J., after having completed her first nonstop flight through the U.S. in 1932. Keystone-France/Getty Images

The dreaded blanket is mentioned in Ghelani’s report of his journey: “My main qualm with this flight was the lack of a decent blanket – the tiny, scratchy blanket that was provided wasn’t cutting it for the six-hour flight.”

I can see Earhart lying in her grave in a swollen grave: “You zip across the continent in six hours and you complain about a scratchy blanket?”

But Ghelani’s story of a drab crossing-country flight exposes the fact commercial air travel isn’t as exciting as it was during the time of Earhart.

One captain of one of the major U.S. airlines, which regularly travels on long routes said to me that “Today jetliners fly across the country from Los Angeles to New York, or Boston to Seattle, full of passengers oblivious to the commonplace practice it has become.”

The pilot compared flights from coast to coast in comparison to “iPhones, microwaves or automobiles” – – just another everyday marvel of modern living.

Little indignities multiply

The high-risk nature of flying has been tempered, but lengthy flights can seem a little grueling.

The philosopher Michael Marder puts it in his book of 2022, ” Philosophy for Passengers“: “When crew members offer passengers a “pleasant trip,’ I detect an element of irony in their phrases. What kind of pleasant would the passenger’s experience be when you’re crammed into your seat, surrounded by no fresh air, the temperature too high or cold and slumber-deprived?”

I asked my friend and frequent flyer Ian Bogost about his experiences with coast-to-coast flights. His response was instructive: “The same trip seems to be getting longer every year, but it is also less comfortable. There are a variety of reasons for this for this – consolidation, shorter routes, air traffic and pilot labor shortages, deteriorating technological infrastructure, but it seems like a slow-motion backwards move.” Despite the numerous attempts to modernize and update aircraft and terminals, the vast network of air travel may seem unwieldy and old-fashioned.

Passengers queue up in the midst of several cancellations on the Newark (N.J.) International Airport in June 2023. Kena Betancur/Getty Images

Recently, at The Atlantic, reporter Amanda Mull wrote about the biometric screening firm Clear. The company’s technologically advanced service lets travelers skip the tedious task of completing identity checks prior to boarding. However, it comes at the price of giving up certain personal and privacy information. Mull states that one of the reasons that more people will enroll for this service is that “traversing American airport security is simply that grim.”

For Mull, the fun of modern air travel isn’t in the destination, nor even the journey itself. it’s what you have to do to make it to the terminal.

It’s important to note the vast majority of people have never stepped foot on an aircraft; traveling across the country is an experience that is largely exclusive. The closest they’ll get to coast-to-coast flight is the appearance of a tiny white mark across the sky while another aircraft takes off in the sky at 35,000 feet.

2 futures of cross-country flights

Coast-to-coast travel has become less about speedy travel or defying impossible odds. And Earhart’s attempts to test the limits of aviation could not be further from the stale routines of modern air travel. Also, it doesn’t involve passengers wearing their best clothes to board one of the jetliners for the first time, with passengers stashing their fashionable hats in spacious overhead bins.

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