The four breakthroughs that will revolutionise long-haul flights in 10 to 15 years

Australians love travelling. We enthusiastically jump on planes, seeking out wonders of the world.

US start-up Boom Technology have designed
a supersonic jet that would reduce flight time between
Sydney and Los Angeles to 7.5 hours.

But we're increasingly conscious of our wellbeing onboard these long-haul flights. Will advancements in technology help resolve this dilemma?

By 2035, there will be almost twice the number of passengers as 2016, according to the International Air Transport Association, leaping from 3.8 billion to a huge 7.2 billion.

As the aviation industry prepares for billions of new customers, here's some of the trends that will revolutionise flying in the next 10 to 15 years.

Read the ABC News story by Chrystal Zhang - "The four breakthroughs that will revolutionise long-haul flights in 10 to 15 years.”

(Chrystal Zhang omits/forgets/sidesteps the much-needed discussion about how all this will happen in an energy restrained future or the fact that unrestrained climate change, a certainty if people continue to live with expectations that evolved in an energy-rich 20th Century, will render the promises of travel hollow. Exciting, yes; possible, unlikely - Robert McLean)

How heat affects roads, trains and planes

Roads can soften, train tracks do expand and, when temperatures are high enough, the book on how to fly some planes literally hasn't been written.

Cars backed up on the Hume Freeway near Seymour.

This is how heat can affect the three modes of transport we depend on most.

They could "melt" or soften and become sticky.

Roads are made up of a gravel base, bitumen and then aggregate (crushed rock).

Professor Frank Bullen specialises in road pavement engineering and says: "The role of the bitumen is to hold the aggregate in place for the traffic to go over."

Read the ABC News story - “How heat affects roads, trains and planes.”

America Crowns a New Pollution King

For the first time in 40 years, power plants are no longer the biggest source of U.S. greenhouse gas pollution. That dubious distinction now belongs to the transport sector: cars, trucks, planes, trains and boats.  

The big reversal didn’t happen because transportation emissions have been increasing. In fact, since 2000 the U.S. has experienced the flattest stretch of transportation-related pollution in modern record keeping, according to data compiled by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The big change has come from the cleanup of America’s electric grid. 

The chart below shows carbon dioxide emissions from transportation exceeding those from electricity production in 2016 for the first time since 1978. The pollution gap has continued to widen further in 2017, according to a Bloomberg analysis.

Read the Bloomberg story by Tom Randall - “America Crowns a New Pollution King.”