[quote=flyer]
The airlines are definitely polluters, but, like most, we still fly, and hope to see the new supersonics around 2030, which “may” be carbon neutral. Used to fly on the Concorde, and, although not climate friendly, definitely fantastic experiences. American Airlines, from which I retired early in my 50’s a couple of years ago, offered great pilot retirement packages during the pandemic, and have now just ordered 20 supersonics this week.
IMHO new supersonic transports around 2030 won’t happen AND the technical reason being before an airframe can be built, one needs a suitable power plant from a manufacturer such as GE, rolls-royce or pratt & whitney
long story short none of these companies is going to bet the farm on developing a suitable power plant for a supersonic transport so dreams of mach 1+ travel,… is just more wishful thinking
sure flying is fun but ever stop and realize that the majority of humanity has never traveled in an airplane???
actually started flying myself (as a pilot) while still in high school, and have always been interested in flying (starting off as a toddler) because basically one of my uncles had an aircraft charter service (and the family lived on an airfield)
then there is the fact my dad and his friends were aero space engineers,… so I grew up listening to stories of how the j58 was tested to destruction in a pratt & whitney test cell so “operational” data could be obtained
FYI the j58 was used on something people might have heard of,… the YF12 and its more famous relative the SR71 “blackbird”
anyway years ago had an epiphany that that my flying hobby is pretty environmentally destructive when I was in a yak 52 and just for shits and giggle did a quick chemical combustion calculation
basically the yak @ takeoff power settings burns 35 GPH,… so since burning one gal of gasoline releases about 20 lbs of CO2,… just flying round the pattern for touch & go’s releases large amounts of CO2 (that will stay in the atmosphere for upwards of a thousand years “trapping infrared” radiation)
bottom line,… because of humanity releasing thousands of gigatons of CO2 which traps “infrared” radiation,… this is causing,…
[quote=flyer]
Yes, nothing and no one lasts forever. We can also add this scenario to our possible apocalyptic future, but there is still some hope:
PS a megaflood (in california) due to atmospheric rivers causing all kinds of damage is just another example of people in general not considering (or preparing for) systemic failures,… said another way, as a pilot you have trained to deal w/ various emergencies,… point being people have not trained to deal w/ climatic emergencies so at some point “shit will hit the fan” and create an avoidable catastrophe
