TRANSPORTATION Airline industry will start changes so it can keep up

A huge jet with a casino and spa is among the coming aviation changes.
SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL
In 20 years, you might zip to the grocery store in a flying car that would land and take off vertically, sort of like George Jetson's cartoon rocket.
For a quick business trip, you could hop on a small jet taxi at a little local airport.
Or, for a transoceanic flight, you'd be able to board a plane so huge that you and your 550 fellow passengers will be able to sweat in a spa or gamble in a casino to pass the time.
Despite the enormous setbacks after the Sept. 11 attacks, the aviation industry has ambitious plans for the future -- out of necessity.
If aviation is to prosper, it must ensure that flying remains the most efficient and convenient form of travel.
Flying car
Moller International, a California company, has developed a flying car with four propellers, one at each corner, capable of whisking around town at 350 mph.
That intrigues Kathy Shackman, a real estate worker from Delray Beach, Fla., "because traffic in this part of the country is wicked. Certain times of year you can't get anywhere."
Although airlines now are cutting costs just trying to survive, the Federal Aviation Administration estimates that by 2010 almost 1 billion passengers will board U.S. airliners, up from 665 million in 2002.
If that is the case, aviation can't afford to stand pat, said Lori Gunter, spokeswoman for Chicago-based Boeing. She said that without adequate planning, future passengers would face long delays because of jammed airports and planes stuck in the skies.
Airbus A380
Nowhere is the industry's determination to move forward more evident than in the Airbus A380, which will become the largest commercial passenger aircraft when it debuts in 2006.
The four-engine colossus will have two full passenger decks, able to fit 840 seats in a one-class configuration, though most airlines are expected to install first- and business-class accommodations and limit passengers to about 555.
A third, lower deck will be used for cargo and amenity areas, such as retail stores, a spa, a casino, a children's entertainment center or a fast-food franchise. The plane will weigh 595 tons, or nearly 200 tons more than the biggest 747.
Why build a plane so huge?
Within the next two decades, airports will reach their maximum capacities in terms of takeoffs and landings, and the only way to increase passenger numbers will be with more seats per plane.
Airbus already has about 95 firm orders for the A380 from Lufthansa, FedEx, Qantas, Virgin Atlantic, Air France, Singapore Airlines and Emirates.
The A380 is expected to start regular service to the United States within the next four years at major hub airports in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta and Miami.
Those flying the A380 should find the fares reasonable, Airbus spokeswoman Mary Anne Greczyn said.
New-generation SST
Someday, NASA and Boeing might team up to build a new-generation supersonic transport, or SST, quiet enough to permit domestic flights over land.
NASA, meanwhile, is developing technology that would allow a plane's wings to change shape for various phases of flight to optimize speed. Because it will take decades to develop the necessary composite materials, the agency doesn't expect to see such planes flying until about 2050.
In the next decade, the Japanese government plans to develop an SST aimed at mainstream passengers, not just the well-to-do.
Under a $200 million development program, the Japanese version would cruise at about 1,500 mph and ascend as high as 59,000 feet. It would be able to fly 7,460 miles, or almost twice the distance of the Concorde flown by the British and the French.
It would seat about 300 passengers, about three times as many as the old-fashioned SST. And, Japanese officials hope it, too, would be as quiet as the new-generation jetliners.
Fast little planes are another wave of the future.
Companies already are building jets that would hold as few as four passenger seats and would fly from one small airfield to another, allowing travelers taking shorter domestic flights to avoid big airport hassles.
Under a five-year, $69 million program, NASA is promoting development of thousands of these jet-propelled taxicabs to ease the overburdened airline hub system and take advantage of about 5,000 smaller, quieter airports.