Why Planes Don't Fly Faster

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.)

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

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

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