Why Does It Still Take 5 Hours To Fly Cross-Country?!

In the early 1960s, President John F. Kennedy pledged that Americans would go to the moon and develop a supersonic commercial airliner. By the end of that decade, the country witnessed in awe Neil Armstrong’s “small step for man...” It was the idea of supersonic intercity travel that proved the unattainable “moonshot.” A half-century after Kennedy’s promise, with the European Concorde in retirement and no American supersonic plane ever cleared for takeoff, airliners still travel at the same speed as did President Kennedy’s 707 Air Force One.

We like to talk about the dizzying rate of technological change these days, but when it comes to intercity travel, we’re stuck back in 1959, when the 707 made its inaugural trans-continental flight. Why is that? And are we now on the eve of startling innovations in flying, or will it still take five hours to fly across the country in 2059? Join Future Tense for lunch in Washington, DC on Wednesday, May 11 to discuss these questions, and the future of aviation. 

Program participants Moderator: James Fallows National correspondent, The Atlantic Author, China Airborne Author, Free Flight: From Airline Hell to a New Age of Travel

Welcome - Living Large and Flying High in the Jet Age, Circa 1959: Andrés Martinez Editorial Director, Future Tense

Panel - What a Drag that Supersonic Boom: The Impediments to Supersonic Flight for the Rest of Us featuring Dr. Dava Newman Deputy Administrator, NASA; Dr. Greg Zacharias Chief Scientist of the US Air Force

Presentation - I’ll Sell You a Futuristic Plane, If You’re Willing to Pay for It featuring Richard Aboulafia Vice President, Analysis, Teal Group Corporation

Conversation - David Lackner Vice President, Head of Research and Technology for North America, Airbus Group Innovations and Dr. Leik Myrabo Founder, Lightcraft Technologies, Inc.; Blake Scholl, Founder and CEO, Boom Technology, Inc.

Panel - Cleared for Takeoff? Our Strained Aviation System’s Capacity and Design faeturing Dr. Diana Pfeil CTO, Resilient Ops, Inc.; Justin Powell, Associate Principal, Arup Group; and, Michelle Schwartz Chief of Staff, Federal Aviation Administration

Parting Thoughts - Air Travel, Circa 2059 featuring James Fallows