A Fanciful Look at Air Carrier Operations in the Year 2050

Captain Lance Boyle smiled as he felt the smooth rippling thunk of the landing gear tires meeting the runway. Now that was how aircraft should land, not this vertical takeoff and landing nonsense employed by the newest "planes," still called that even though they didn't have wings at all. He eased forward on the side-stick controller slightly. The nose gear touched down and the strut compressed gently to give him a better view of the runway here at Los Angeles Air and Space Port. Captain Boyle continued the roll-out, pleased that his last landing in the "real world" had been a good one. Regretfully, there was no one else in the cockpit to congratulate him, since the Boeing-Bus 370, like all of the transport aircraft of its era, was a single pilot machine. Now the airplane, and the pilot as well, was being phased out, victims of the laws of economics and advancements in technology.