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A comment on Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes triple the density of lithium batteries. Parent comment

Re:Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes triple the density of... by onion2k on Wednesday October 07, 2020 @11:17AM (#24709123)
Only if you value overseas travel... It currently takes ~16 hours to fly from SF to Singapore depending on weather. Any longer, and you're going to see a lot of that travel disappear.

It takes that long because it's more efficient to do it in a single flight. Taking off and landing are a massive waste of time and fuel. If we only had short range planes people would change their destinations in some cases or they'd plan layovers as part of the trip. I don't think you'd see that many people just stop travelling abroad.

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Re:Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes triple the density of... by Animats on Wednesday October 07, 2020 @02:51PM (#24711352)
In the era when planes had to do that, there was not much trans-oceanic travel. The Pan Am flying boats, the "China Clippers", went from San Francisco to Hawaii to Midway to Wake to Guam to Manila to Macao to Hong Kong. It took a week.[1]

[1] https://tripsintohistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Clip...

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Re:Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes triple the density of... by tomalpha on Wednesday October 07, 2020 @12:11PM (#24709640)
Indeed. Though like in the olden days the large number of stopovers might cut down demand somewhat:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo_Route#Multiple_stops

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Re:Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes triple the density of... by nopzor on Wednesday October 07, 2020 @06:28PM (#24713554)
it's not really true that ultra long range direct flights (eg. from sfo to sin) are more efficient.

the efficiency gain by not taking off and landing is eaten away by the efficiency loss of having to carry so much fuel (which also comes at the expense of useful load..)

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