The thing is, the vast majority of airplane crashes happen at takeoff or landing, because that's when there's the least time to react if something goes wrong. Unfortunately, this is also when a parachute would be least effective, because there isn't sufficient altitude to deploy one. (Never mind that we don't even have a design for parachutes large enough to safely land an airliner fuselage.) Additionally, by giving the fuselage the ability to separate from the wings, you seriously weaken the strongest and most critical point of the aircraft: the main wing spar. In other words, you gain an additional risky emergency landing method, which could only be deployed in certain very unlikely circumstances (if the plane is high enough to safely deploy parachutes, it it probably high enough to glide to a safe landing, or at least safer then landing wherever you end up with parachutes) - and in the process you also now have a much higher chance of the wings falling off in midair.
I think I prefer a normal airliner design.
Not sure how you can desire better safety. The last fatal crash of a US airline flight was in 2009.
I'd take the 4 hours any day. At that point, it's reasonable to take a trip to Europe for a long weekend.
There's gotta be a market for an all-business-class plane, since we know that first/business subsidize coach, but nobody's doing it yet. The airlines want to throw those business class seats out as perks to people spending corporate dollars, not charge the end user what they actually cost, in which case "real humans" could afford them.
I've also had this issue with the "Premium Service" United flights between SFO and NYC/BOS. It supposedly exists, but whenever I search, I can't filter on those particular flights.
Really? How come first has all but disappeared on European flights and business keeps shrinking?
there is really no point where it becomes worth it to make seats bigger without charging more. If there is more space on the plane, it makes more since to put more seats there, not keep the number of seats the same
Would you rather fly in business class comfort for 8 hours or with less comfort for 4 hours? Almost doesn't seem worth the expense and risk of going supersonic.
I would be so much more excited about an airplane that was large enough that economy class seating was as comfortable as business class seating is today. That would be much more revolutionary.
I would also get excited about an airplane that was vastly safer than the already-quite-safe airplanes we have.
An airplane with a fail-safe fuselage that can disconnect from the rest of the plane, parachute to the ground and land (or float) safely. This could potentially eliminate fire danger by jettisoning everything flammable (gas filled wings, engines, cockpit, and whatever else).
The fact that flying is uncomfortable and still-too-scary to millions of people are the biggest opportunities for innovation that I see.
Flying at 500+ MPH is already quite fast given the size of the planet.