Enthusiasm for flying cars reached a peak in the 1950s when the Ford Motor Company almost started mass-producing one. Studies done at the time showed such a vehicle was technically feasible, was fairly easy to manufacture and had commercial appeal. The markets identified for it included the police, ambulance and other emergency services plus the armed forces and wealthy individuals.

The problems then, as now, were more regulatory than technical or economic. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was aghast at the volume of additional air traffic Ford had in mind. The air-traffic control systems of the day would have been overwhelmed. Ford promptly abandoned the idea, even though its flying car would have been cheaper to build and operate than the helicopters that subsequently took over most of their intended roles.

Since then, a number of diehards and dreamers have laboured on. (…) There are those who believe the best—though, technically, the most challenging—way to build a flying car is to adopt a vertical take-off and landing approach. One enthusiast, Canadian-born Paul Moller of Davis, California, has spent an estimated $250m of his own and other people’s money over the past 45 years trying get his fan-powered Skycar off the ground. So far, none of his vertical take-off and landing prototypes has risen much more than a few feet. (…)

There are at least four reasons why motorists are unlikely ever to take to the skies. Planes like the Transition are not glorified cars; they are aircraft strictly for licensed pilots. Admittedly, a sport pilot licence will get an owner airborne. But without a proper instrument rating, owners will be restricted to daytime flying, in good weather and in uncongested airspace below 10,000 feet. The Transition and its ilk are niche products, alongside other light sport aircraft, for people willing to spend time and money getting a pilot’s licence.

And forget about taking off or landing on public roads. The only place in America where that is legal is Alaska—a place notorious for its air crashes. Most other countries have similarly strict rules about operating aircraft on public roads.

Then there is the air-traffic control problem.

{ Economist | Continue reading }

Airline ticket prices can change from minute to minute, frustrating buyers. Taxes and fees can double the cost of traveling. Frequent-flier miles saved for years prove worthless when no seats are available when you want to go. You can’t change your schedule without a fat penalty, but the airline can change its schedule without any penalty at all.

Is there any other industry — other than, perhaps, funeral homes — that makes it so difficult to use its product? (…)

To help travelers improve their journeys and restore some of the excitement of air travel, I’ve developed some basic rules of the road — the Ten Commandments of Travel. (…)

7. Never check anything you cannot live without.

{ Wall Street Journal | Continue reading }

Countries around the world began tightening their border and immigration controls Tuesday as the number of confirmed cases of swine flu continued to rise.

The number of deaths believed attributable to swine flu climbed to as many as 152 on Tuesday — all of them in Mexico — as news agencies reported the number of confirmed cases of infection in the United States stood at 50 after further testing at a New York City school.

Spanish Health Minister Trinidad Jiménez on Tuesday said Spain had confirmed a

second case of swine flu, in the eastern province of Valencia, but that the patient was recovering well.

Israel’s Ministry of Health on Tuesday reported the first case in the country. (…) Russia and South Korea each reported a suspected case of swine flu on Tuesday. (…)

Two people in Scotland — the first known victims of the virus in Britain — were said by hospital authorities on Tuesday to be recovering after contracting the flu while on honeymoon in Cancún, Mexico. (…)

Suspected cases have appeared in Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand, but confirmation is slow because most nations’ laboratories lack the test kit the C.D.C. is developing for the new virus.

{ NY Times | Continue reading | Swine Flu Cases Worldwide | graphic }

Hong Kong, the epicenter of a SARS outbreak six years ago, announced some of the toughest measures anywhere on Sunday in response to a swine flu outbreak in Mexico and the United States. (…)

Ever since the 2003 outbreak of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, Hong Kong has used infrared scanners to measure the facial temperatures of all arrivals at its airport and at its border crossings with mainland China.

Dr. Thomas Tsang, the controller of the Hong Kong government’s Center for Health Protection, said Sunday afternoon at a news conference that any traveler who had passed through a city with laboratory-confirmed cases and who arrived in Hong Kong with a fever and respiratory symptoms would be intercepted by officials and sent to a hospital to await testing.

“Until that test is negative, we won’t allow him out,” he said.

{ NY Times | Continue reading }

Pork producers question whether the term “swine flu” is appropriate, given that the new virus has not yet been isolated in samples taken from pigs in Mexico or elsewhere.

{ NY Times | Continue reading }

Swine influenza has killed 149 people in Mexico so far and infected many more worldwide. So how many pigs have died in the outbreak?

No more than usual.

{ Slate | Continue reading | Swine flu: What you need to know }

related { Risk communication before and during epidemics | The etymology of epidemiology and the cultural fears of worldwide disease }

more { Taking care of a sick person in your home during a flu pandemic | The “swine flu fiasco,” 1976 | Fighting swine flu with the power of design }

On Pet Airways, of Delray Beach, Florida, all pets travel in the main cabin and owners are not allowed on board - not even in the cargo hold.

The new airline claims to be the first designed specifically for the safe and comfortable transportation of pets.

Company founders Dan Wiesel and Alysa Binder say they got the idea while planning holidays with their pet dog.

The airline has scheduled its first flight for cats and dogs for 14 July and will serve five US cities - New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles.

Pets - or pawsengers, as the airline calls them - can be booked in online and are checked in to a Pet Lounge at the airport.

{ BBC | Continue reading }

photo { Victor Harshbarger }

The naked body scanners are taking over. When we first checked in on them two years ago, the scanners, which see through clothing, were being deployed at a single airport. A few months later, they were upgraded to millimeter-wave technology, which delivered similar images with even less radiation—”10,000 times less than a cell phone transmission,” according to the Transportation Security Administration. At the time, TSA assured us that the scanners would be used only as a “voluntary alternative” to “a more invasive physical pat-down during secondary screening.” Only a few passengers, the ones selected for extra scrutiny, would face the scanners. The rest of us could walk through the metal detectors and board our planes.

Two months ago, TSA revised its position. It began testing millimeter-wave scans “in the place of the walk-through metal detector at six airports.” At these airports, everyone—not just people selected for secondary screening—would face the see-through machines. Anyone who objected would “undergo metal detector screening and a pat-down.” You might even get the “enhanced pat-down,” which includes “sensitive areas of the body that are often used by professional testers and terrorists,” such as “the breast and groin areas of females and the groin area of males.”

{ Slate | Continue reading }

{ Key to eliminating U.S. flight delays? Redesign the sky over NY City | Wired | Full story }

Virgin America is suing Adrants [advertising blog]. The focus of the suit is a paragraph of editorial that was paired with a fake ad. (…)

Seriously… Virgin doesn’t have better things to do? Like, um dealing with their investors who are thinking about abandoning the airline? Talk about wasteful litigation. What does Virgin gain from this action? Adrants surely doesn’t have the cash to make a pay out worth it. The offending material is already off the live site. One could argue this is a deterrent for other sites, but the internet is still the wild, wild West. People are going to do what they like. A best, no one mocks Virgin again and that’s a long shot. At worst, a certain segment of the internet begins to think your brand is seriously lame.

{ AgencySpy | Continue reading }

{ Round trip with Endeavour | more }

A US Airways jetliner crashed into the frigid Hudson River on Thursday afternoon after a flock of birds apparently disabled both its engines, but rescuers pulled the more than 150 passengers and crew members into boats before the plane sank. { AP/Wired | NY Times }

The accident involving the jet, which took off from La Guardia Airport, would be unusual, though, because both of the plane’s engines appeared to have been damaged by birds. { NY Times }

Airports have successfully experimented with using dogs to chase away birds. Some airports have used falcons as predators for the smaller birds. Birds can also legally be killed by aircraft authorities who have obtained the proper permissions, if the species is not endamgered or protected. { US News }

My friend Peter Thompson’s research found that there had been more than 150 million commercial flights since 1970 without a single water landing. { Freakonomics/NY Times | Continue reading }

update { Transcripts of air traffic controllers and interviews with the crew }

{ via gawker }

Irish pilots have warned that “sooner or later somebody will be killed” if there is not an island-wide concerted crackdown on the increasing use of laser pointers to dazzle or blind pilots.

The Irish Aviation Authority confirmed that since September there were close to a dozen attempts to dazzle or blind pilots flying in and out of Dublin airport.

The most serious incident in Ireland happened at George Best Belfast City Airport in August, when the captain of a Boeing 737 was hit in the eye with a laser as he made his approach to land.

On Halloween night this year several planes were targeted by a green laser at the same airport. (…)

The use of laser pointers has become such a serious issue over recent years that the internet trading companies eBay and Amazon decided they would ban them from sale on their sites.

The high-powered pointers can be used responsibly by people such as astronomers for star-pointing. In recent years, however, there has been an increasing malicious use of the lasers. One airline source said she was aware of a pilot in Australia who was forced out of work when a laser was beamed into his eyes.

{ Irish Times | Continue reading }

Fewer than 1% of airline passengers singled out at airports for suspicious behavior are arrested, Transportation Security Administration figures show, raising complaints that too many innocent people are stopped.

A TSA program launched in early 2006 that looks for terrorists using a controversial surveillance method has led to more than 160,000 people in airports receiving scrutiny, such as a pat-down search or a brief interview. That has resulted in 1,266 arrests, often on charges of carrying drugs or fake IDs, the TSA said.

The TSA program trains screeners to become “behavior detection officers” who patrol terminals and checkpoints looking for travelers who act oddly or appear to answer questions suspiciously.

Critics say the number of arrests is small and indicates the program is flawed. (…)

Some scientists say the TSA effort is just as likely to flag a nervous traveler as a terrorist.

{ USA Today | Continue reading }

illustrations { James Jean | sketch/2008 }