I was offered a level 3 engineering position on the 787 and one reason I decided against taking the job was terrorism. I think the days of the jetliner are numbered, just like the days of the Titanic or railroads are over, but worse.

If a person is willing to kill themselves, they can take down an airliner rather "easily." A "groundbus" ramming will not likely kill many, if any, but a ramming of an "airbus" will usually end up with all dead after the fall. Just count the ways. After working in radar for a while, I can see that airliners have 10-20 years and nobody will ride on them due to fear of ground missiles, air to air, ramming, taxi way ramming, etc, etc. All it would take is an orchestrated 911 style attach, and down goes Boeing and Airbus as a business model, along with airliners.

Ask NASA what they think the risks are to USA and world transportation with airliners as a main transit mode. They clearly acknowledge that we need "personal air vehicles" or PAVs and it is a matter of national security. They can see the writing on the wall.

Anything that groups people up in "Mass transit" models is a target of terrorist because it gives the suicide killer leverage, whether it is a groundbus, light rail, commuter rail, or airliner. The future of transportation MUST eliminate the killer's leverage, and jetliners are the best leverage to kill, as we all saw on 911.

All transit must evolve to flying cars (with parachutes somewhat like that found on a Cirrus SR20) and the sort where a ramming or such only causes a near one death to one death kill ratio where the suicide killer has little or no result. Afterall, we don't see suicide killers turning their car into head-on traffic to kill. Media will not think it sensational enough, but an A380 with 800 people...you might as well paint a target on it.

Wasting money on new A380, "Dreamliners" or "blended wind body" concept is a financial nightmare that will happen, not if, but when.

As I see it, the A380 is the signal of an era that soon will pass. The question is whether we can all see the obvious and stop supporting ideas like the 787, blended wing body, and A380, and support entrepreneurs with the correct vision for the future of transportation. Boeing will be forced to produce PAVs or go out of business. The EU tax payer will pick up the reckage of Airbus.

The business model of mass transit airliners has never made a profit for stock holders since the Wrigth Brothers, except of course, Southwest airlines. When you figure in the unfunded liabilities (pay the fire insurance against terrorist future attacks and regular operation risks of crashes and suits that follow) even Southwest comes up a looser.

The real question is how to make money in aviation when ALL real costs are factored in and all unfunded liabilities are ammortized. It cannot be done with the current crop of piston engines nor any of the new turbo jet engines, nor with the aerodynamics found on a classical monoplane. NASA clearly does not understand this and wastes money on concepts that will not work.

If you want to solve this problem, write me an e-mail: seaplanguy@msn.com

straight from homeland security's log book

I do agree that the Airbus is a large target, but I dis-agree that it is the death of the industry. Their are many disadvantages to PAV's. For starters they are inefficient in the extreme, complex to fly and could be the equivalent of flying car bombs. The first two can be overcome with time, quantity and engineering, but think how easy it would be to load up your PAV with a Timothy McVeigh type bomb and target a stadium or shopping mall or even an airport terminal.

The speed advantage and efficiency will preclude the disappearance of larger aircraft until such time as PAV's could operate for dollars per flight hour, not hundreds of dollars per hour,(like the new VLJ's). Until the masses can get to grandma's for comparable cost, air travel will continue in the higher threat environment you describe. MANPADS can be jammed, ( Re: El Al's Africa near miss) and the answer might be self defense pods on all commercial aircraft.

Additional automation of cockpits which could be overtaken by ground controllers, in the case of a 911 flight profile, could also mitigate the flying bomb type attack, but would be overwhelmed by "millions" of PAV's.

Just one mans opinion.

Ron

Austin, Texas

At any rate, I wish some one would help me in getting them to pre-spin the wheels on landing. Then it would cost less to ride in one.

dellori3

" I think the days of the jetliner are numbered, just like the days of the Titanic or railroads are over"

These were replaced with something else. until that something else is developed. It will be here for a while yet.

like maybe railroading and oceanliners????