Over the Horizon in Air Transportation
ResearchPublished 1966
ResearchPublished 1966
A broad forecast of the air transport picture in the years 1980 to 2000. Air traffic will unquestionably continue to increase well into the 1980s, when problems of air traffic control and terminal congestion are likely to check the pace of increase. Long-range transport will be permanently divided into a speed market and an economy market. Giant economy transports will impose enormous burdens on ground facilities. Supersonic transports will improve in range rather than speed or size. Subsonic jets, large and small, will play a wide range of roles. Helicopters will become competitive in the commercial transport field, and STOL aircraft will fill in the gaps as soon as suitable ground facilities are provided. Hypersonic, nuclear-powered, orbital, and ballistic transports do not seem practical within this period; nor do they seem particularly needed, except for those that are nuclear-powered.
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