COPYRIGHT: KAUKO HELAVUO & FINNAIR
If you've read George Monbiot's book Heat you'll know that there is a considerable school of thought that flying just isn't a sustainable way to travel if we want to tackle global warming (along with combustion engine cars and, annoyingly, high-speed trains amongst other things). He puts forward a convincing argument, and yet I have still flown at least 3 times since reading it.
Finnair is 85 years old this year (which is a strange number to celebrate if you ask me, but maybe given global economics waiting another 5 years is too risky!) and unsurprisingly for an airline are similarly in denial about there being a sustainable future for air transport with their Departure 2093: Five Visions of Future Flying with no.2 being 'flying is ecological'. Of course they don't say what the weather is like outside, although the ability to land on water is mentioned which will be useful if the ice caps have melted by then.
On the design front they present their 'future fleet' of supersonic, super wide-body cruisers, space hotel shuttles, and personal zero-emission aircraft. But one question where's my jetpack?
