"Why Does It Still Take 5 Hours To Fly Cross-Country?!"
![plane wing view of clouds, plane wing from plane windo](/sites/default/files/2022-09/plane-wing-1542219-1280x960.jpg)
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.
Join the conversation online using #FTaviation and by following @FutureTenseNow.
Moderator:
James Fallows
National correspondent, The Atlantic
Author, China Airborne
Author, "Free Flight: From Airline Hell to a New Age of Travel"
@JamesFallows
Agenda:
noon
"Living Large and Flying High in the Jet Age, Circa 1959"
Andrés Martinez
Editorial Director, Future Tense
12:10 p.m.
"What a Drag that Supersonic Boom: The Impediments to Supersonic Flight for the Rest of Us"
Dr. Dava Newman
Deputy Administrator, NASA
Apollo Program Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
@DavaExplorer
Dr. Greg Zacharias
Chief Scientist of the US Air Force
12:40 p.m.
"I’ll Sell You a Futuristic Plane, If You’re Willing to Pay for It"
Presentation:
Richard Aboulafia
Vice President, Analysis, Teal Group Corporation
Conversation:
David Lackner
Vice President, Head of Research and Technology for North America, Airbus Group Innovations
Dr. Leik Myrabo
Founder, Lightcraft Technologies, Inc.
Blake Scholl
Founder and CEO, Boom Technology, Inc.
@bscholl
1:40 p.m.
"Cleared for Takeoff? Our Strained Aviation System’s Capacity and Design"
Dr. Diana Pfeil
CTO, Resilient Ops, Inc.
@dianam
Justin Powell
Associate Principal, Arup Group
Michelle Schwartz
Chief of Staff, Federal Aviation Administration
2:30 p.m.
"Parting Thoughts: Air Travel, Circa 2059"
James Fallows
2:40 p.m.
adjourn