The Future of flight ✈

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It's been about 3 weeks since Jeff Bezos blew off into space on a spaceship in the shape of a penis, perhaps the phallic object was man doing the sky as a symbolic message. It did bring back memories of Austin Powers and it was great to see I wasn't the only one who instantly thought of that scene and it was great to see the internet deliver with many a meme made.

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Just nine days prior to Bezos, Branson took to outter space in Virgin Galactic a far better designed ship and a far better experience. Elon Musk is yet to reach the stars despite being heavily funded by the US Government his rockets keep blowing up.

So the private space race has been won and with it brought alot of negativity too much of it surrounding the expense and how we could end world hunger and poverty. There might be truth to that somewhere but no amount of money would end world hunger. There are many contributing factors that lead to it and no nation should feel guilty for their accomplishments. Plus as this industry continues to grow much like early aviation it will become more affordable and provide 10s of thousands of jobs.

Melbourne Airport alone contributes 30,000 direct jobs and a heap more from flow on markets and industries. That in itself helps alot of people not starve.

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But this space race was needed on a few fronts first of all technological advancements, alot has changed since humankind put a man on the moon. Many might think it's not worth it but eventually this planet will die and by us investing and reaching for the skies we're building the blue prints for future generations to be able to escape this rock and perhaps find a new one.

Coming out of COVID we're going to need new industries to boost the economy and reboot much of what has been lost. Aviation is going to be a booming industry with many planning on holidays and time away at the first opportunity they get.

Which is where this new technology comes into play, at the moment it's expensive but eventually just like early model planes it will become cheap. When it does travel to anywhere on this rock will not take a day or days. It will be a matter of moments.

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If you watched Bezos whole clip the entire flight to outter space was all over and done with in about 15 minutes, I think it takes NASA 10 minutes to get to outter space. The quickest way to any destination on this planet is straight up and down. Given that some places on the other side of our rock may require a brief float as we move against the earth's rotation. But this in itself might add 10 - 30 minutes when you consider it takes a satellite no more than
90 minutes to orbit the Earth. That means within that 90 minute period you can be ontop of any country or location on the Earth. The decent? Bugger all. So you're looking at 3hours Max to be in America from Australia (probably not event that).

This poses significant risk to aeroplanes ✈ whose going to spend upto 48hrs on a plane 3 change overs, jet lag and squashed in a tiny seat with no fresh air? No one, yeah us jet-setting on a rocket ship might not be here tomorrow but it took 60 years from flight to moon. Around 53 years from moon to private rocket, that's nothing in the span of a humans life. Someone born today or even 10 years ago could be stepping foot on a rocket.

Given that technology is advancing at a more rapid rate and these guys are going to want to make cash off a new enterprise while they're still alive. You're looking at 10 - 15years. 25 tops.

As trains are a cheap alternative to planes, so too will planes need to be to rockets and the only way that they can do that, is if they get rid of jet fuel. Yup, we're going to need either hydrogen jets or electric jets that not only are cheaper to run but fill up less.

Work is already underway to make this happen, guess what. When it does that means that same tech is available to yup, rockets. The benefit to a plane is that it doesn't have to go as fast or as far so it can retain energy and possibly while flying at 900kms an hour even generate some of its own.

So while many condemned rich billionaires for flying to space, I'm extremely excited because it means this island nation is no longer too far away from anywhere and soon ill be able to visit a heap of global destinations for cheap and most likely in no time at all!

Cheers to the future of flight 🍻