the.com/airliner
a hundred-ton miracle that flies you cheaper than your couch costs per mile
means A large passenger aircraft operated by a commercial airline to carry people on scheduled routes.
from A straightforward compound of 'air' and 'liner' — the latter borrowed from the great ocean 'liners,' ships that ran a regular 'line' or scheduled route between ports. As commercial flight grew in the early 20th century, the same logic took to the sky: a vessel that runs a fixed line, only through air instead of water. So tucked inside the word is the older romance of steamship travel, repackaged at 30,000 feet.
- cruise altitude
- flies where outside air would boil your blood
- wing flex
- wingtips bend several feet without snapping
- engine power
- one jet engine could power a small town
- toilet myth
- waste isn't dumped midair, despite the legend
- safest travel
- statistically safer than the drive to the airport
boeing 747 — jumbo jet that revolutionized long-haul travel since 1969, carried ~125,000 passengers per plane over 50 years
airbus a380 — world's largest passenger airliner with 853 seats, operated by airlines like emirates and lufthansa since 2007
concorde — supersonic airliner that flew nyc to london in 3.5 hours from 1969-2003