KEY POINTS:
In the history of mass-market passenger jet travel, two things have remained virtually constant: the speed and the cost. The arrival of wide-bodied aircraft in the 1960s meant that air travel was no longer just for rich people, but it wasn't exactly for poor people. The fare to London cost the same as it does now - or $20,000 for a seat in modern money.
And it hasn't got any easier. Auckland-Heathrow is still 28 hours or so, counting layover, and it still seems like a week and it still takes a week to get over it.
But plans announced this week for a "hypersonic" airliner raise the possibility of a 6100km/h, five-hour trip to the other side of the planet. This would be accomplished by a jet burning non-polluting liquid-hydrogen. And tickets would cost the same as a sub-sonic business-class fare, about $8800 in 2008 dollars.
The only sensible reaction to that price promise is "read the small print". Anybody who believes that Joe Bloggs can access such technological development for the cost of a six-year old Corolla has forgotten that you get cost overruns painting a pedestrian crossing these days.
But there are bigger worries. If an aeroplane can get you to London almost faster than a taxi can get you to the airport, imagine the massive case of jet lag that would induce. It's all very well to lunch in London after breakfasting in Browns Bay but given that your brain, stomach and soul will be somewhere over the Timor Sea, it may not be very pleasurable.
The best progress that can be imagined in the worldwide travel industry is the return of the steam ships which eased us slowly into our new destination. It is, after all, better to travel than to arrive.
