u_bin_called
If I told you how much passenger jets have changed over the past 30 years to make them lighter and more fuel-efficient (things like replacing steel with plastic and eliminating those pesky redundancies that protect against system failures) you'd probably never fly commercial again...
Jeff D
While they're at it, maybe they should be working on transporters to beam people around the planet.
marsel_duchamp
Electric powered planes are being developed. High speed rail is a better option though for intermediate distance travel. I have used them in other countries. The terminals are in the heart of the city, you don't need to arrive hours ahead of time to board, and delays and cancellations are much rarer.
Hombre Sin Nombre AKA Oggmeista
simple answer really..it takes more energy to fly because of gravity....meaning it needs more fuel/energy per/km..and vastly increasing air traffic, as well as the former, would also mean higher chance of air accidents, and unlike most road accidents, air accidents are fatal
an additional point and one that i would argue is the whole basis of the argument to increase air traffic, is the relative speeds, however over shorter distance this difference in reality isn't as significant, because aircraft take time to be allowed to land and have much higher time to prepare for departures (pre flight check list), that the time difference for a given journey, does not compensate for the difference in needed energy, the other points have been correctly made my @Scott.B
So you see in reality, it's a no brainer
Anonymous
Let's make wings for them and people can flap them to make it fly!!!