Why are airplanes slower than they used to be? - Alex Gendler

Why aren’t commercial flights getting faster? Dig into the technological and environmental problems facing supersonic flight.

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In 1996, a British Airways plane flew from New York to London in a record-breaking two hours and fifty-three minutes. Today, however, passengers flying the same route can expect to spend no less than six hours in the air — twice as long. So why, in a world where everything seems to be getting faster, have commercial flights lagged behind? Alex Gendler details the problems facing supersonic flight.

Lesson by Alex Gendler, directed by Zedem Media.

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[akruzerr]

Damn.. That timeline animation is smooth and satisfying

[redaghassah]

The two sets of wings to create two waves to cancel each other is a genius idea.

[adrianshi]

Instead of trying to reduce fly time, reducing the time spent on boarding plane is more practical

[lachlankeddie]

I remember someone saying once that the majority of people who flew on Concorde would have had no idea how much their tickets would have cost, because they were wealthy enough to have personal assistants to book their flights and accountants to worry about the price...

[nyah]

Oooh that "catch me if you can" inspired animation. I love it

[thesexybatman]

Welcome to another episode of "Questions I never asked but need the answer to" courtesy of TED-Ed.

[raphizz]

My mother worked on the concorde during 8 years if I remember well. She met so many celebrities and I love hearibg her tell me those stories :)

[BlueMist]

When I was a kid, my school was near an airport. Whenever a plane took off it rattled the windows of the classroom and all we could hear was the roar of the engine. That all stopped right when the Concord went out of service. Now I finally know why this stopped happening! Thanks Ted-Ed! 😁

[suntzu]

As Always Ted Ed has Raised the level of education with animation!

[tuongthoainguyen]

This is certainly one of the best edited videos on this channel. I love the concept and every frame of it.

[franciscotoro]

One key element neatly left out is that aircraft can go to higher altitueds where air resistant is sufficiently low, yet dense enough to provide oxigen to the engines while significantly reducing air drag. This has been known for decades, but the resulting economies would be of such a scale that airlines would not be able to justify the already inflated prices.

[moron]

The double, inverted wings plane thing kind of blew my mind. That's such an interesting concept!

[tedtolliver]

I feel like my IQ increases by 1 point every time they upload a new Ted-Ed video.

[RobiePAX]

I perfectly understand people's frustration with sonic booms and why planes were regulated to stop causing them. I grew up with my grandparents. They owned a farm near an airport. Farm was very close to it so you could see every plane landing and taking off.

Quite commonly military jets were taking off from there as well for some reason. And Jesus Christ.... you could see the shockwave when they take off. The sound is extremely loud, all windows vibrate like crazy. Volume is like 1AM in a club.

We didn't live on that farm, only were coming in to do farming. But if I'd live and sleep there I'd go crazy.

[iqrakhan]

This is so engaging. Not at all monotonous instead fast moving and connected with varied facts and information. Super!!

[kurumi]

The drag coefficient increases dramatically as you approach the speed of sound, then trails off as it passes Mach 1, but supersonic flight isn't viable for commercial flights because of a) sonic booms rattling homes and b) fuel costs needed to power the engines. So what airlines do is keep the speed at about Mach 0.85-0.9, just before the exponential drag increase kicks in.

[Aurora-mlcp]

I request TED-Ed make animations like this for next videos.
This kind of animation is so wonderful and aesthetic. One of the best animation so far!!

[unknowngirloriginal]

Another problem with Concorde was they had to have certain requirements for runways as well as taking of and landing could not be done with aircrafts in a certain radius of the airport. It wasn't just the cost of the aircraft itself but also the runways and other complications it caused with other aircrafts making Concorde unsuitable for airports unless requirements were met.

I grew up on the funny story of my dad learning to fly a light aircraft and that a Concorde aircraft was made to wait until he landed.

[omarsharif]

Ted ed, you are honestly the most simplified educational channel ever! I even follow you on Spotify. Hope these videos continue to change the world

[shivamparsad]

TED-Ed answers all that questions that we don't even think ❤️