Idea Overload 325
planes by ten percent,” Elon said. “That’s pretty lame. I have
a design in mind for a vertical liftoff supersonic jet that
would be a really big improvement.”^51
After some engineering calculations, he realized the
new aircraft should fly at an extreme altitude because the
density of the air drops as higher you fly. The performance
of the electric aircraft will thus improve. While an electric
aircraft should fly at an altitude of 80 000 feet [24 km], the
optimal altitude for a combustion aircraft is 40 000 feet. “In
order to go fast, you need to be at high altitude where the
air drops exponentially, as air at sea level becomes as thick
as molasses as you approach sonic velocity,” Elon said.^401
Like a helicopter, this new aircraft will takeoff and land
vertically.^328
While commuting in Los Angeles, Elon found another
sad problem. Some highways in Los Angeles have ten
traffic lanes, but the traffic situation is still horrible. Elon
explained that it’s easier to launch rockets into orbit than
to commute between his home in Bel Air and SpaceX in
Hawthorne – a distance of 15 miles [24 km] as the crow
flies. “The 405 varies from bad to horrendous,” Elon said.
“It just seems people in Los Angeles are being tortured by
this. I don’t know why they aren’t marching in the streets.”
A double-decker-highway is Elon’s solution to his com-
muting problem. The second deck will consist of a cheap
metal construction dropped on the top of the original
highway. It will increase the capacity with 100 percent.
To speed up the idea, Elon contributed with $50 000 to
a group seeking to hasten the development and repair