3 HN users recommended this explainer3 months2018–2022score 3.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
Recommended as a clear economic explanation of aviation tradeoffs, relevant to Concorde and supersonic startup threads.
Wendover Productions explains why modern airliners fly no faster than they did decades ago, covering the economics of speed and fuel efficiency, and why supersonic travel faded.
“airplanes used to fly much faster in the 1960s than they do today.” (HN, 2018)
If anyone finds the operation of airlines a fascinating topic, you might like Wendover Productions: [link] How airlines price flights [link] The little plane war [link] Why planes don't fly faster [this video] The economics of Airline Class [link] How airlines schedule flights [link] I just recently found the channel. So much good stuff. (My unrelated favorite is [link] How the US government will survive doomsday.)
Why planes don't fly faster, among Wendover's airline videos.
This reminds me of a Wendover video I've seen. The author discovers that airplanes used to fly much faster in the 1960s than they do today. So our flight times have actually gone up! He then explains the reasons behind it. [this video]
Planes flew faster in the 1960s; explains why not now.
Selected Twitter responses: - Why Planes Don't Fly Faster, [this video] - Akira Kurosawa - Composing Movement, [link] - Richard Hamming: "Learning to Learn", [link] - Rise and fall of Third Reich, [link] - The men who built America, [link] -History of the World, [link]
Listed among most educational YouTube videos from Twitter responses.
I’m not sure that it would even be larger now than before. Subsonic flight has become much more efficient, cheaper and when paying for higher class, more comfortable. This is one of the reasons often mentioned for the economic demise of the concorde. The audience willing to pay $6000 on a concorde ticket, could now spend $4000 on first class subsonic with a seat that fully reclines into a bed. They can fly a little longer at night but sleep the whole journey. Wendover did a good economic analysis of the concorde: [this video]
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