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JETS

THE TECH POWERING PLANES OF TOMORROW

QVERTICAL TAKEOFFS QWINDOWLESS DESIGN QSELF-HEALING TECHNOLOGY

O

n 1 Januar y 1914, the world was changed

forever when the fi rst commercial fl ight

took to the skies. It fl ew between the

cities of St Petersburg and Tampa in the state of

Florida in the United States, lasting a total of 23

minutes and covering a distance of 33.8

kilometres (21 miles).

This landmark event came 11 years after the

famous Wright brothers’ fi rst powered fl ight,

and marked the fi rst time someone paid to be a

passenger on an aircraft. The plane was the

boat-like Benoist XIV, which only had room for

the pilot and the auction-winning bidder, who

coughed up a healthy $400 for the experience.

That would be over $9,500 (£5,850) in today’s

estimated currency value.

Today, people are likely to pay over 100 times

that initial amount for a ticket on a suborbital

fl ight. These space planes will take their

passengers into orbit, cutting the time from

London to the US west coast down to an

astonishing 60 minutes. However, it’s not just

the passengers that are getting a boost. Plans

are well under way for smartplanes that can

sense when they’ve got a problem and even

heal themselves mid-fl ight.

The last 100 years have seen startling

improvements in commercial aeroplane

technolog y, such as enormous double-decker

jets that can carr y up to 853 passengers in a

single haul, planes that can circle the world in

less than two days and, of course, the legendar y

Concorde that took over 2.5 million people

through the sound barrier.

Over the next few pages, we look to the next

century of sparkling innovation to see what the

aircraft of the future might look like.

Commercial fl ight has come a million miles

from that fi rst wooden biplane journey, so

buckle up, put your tray into the upright

position and please stay seated for the duration

of your journey.

AIR