Leader: Budget flying – on a wing and a prayer

IT MAY be three years late, smaller than other airliners and not as fast as some. But the Boeing Dreamliner, which had its maiden commercial flight yesterday, offers a multi-barrelled benefit to air passengers: bigger windows, ambient lighting to help them sleep better, improved air quality and even bidet-equipped lavatories.

The Dreamliner embodies improvements in technology that enhance the experience of air travel while lowering fuel consumption. This has to be the way forward in a world ever more conscious of the adverse environmental impacts of air travel.

Can low-cost Dreamliners for mass travel be far behind? It cannot be long before the maiden flight of the Bumblebee Budgetliner, a popular aircraft of the future capable of flying 1,000 passengers in body-sculpted hand-luggage holds. Innovative features might include bags strapped to the papier-mâché wings, while passengers help to keep carbon emissions low by bringing on board forest detritus to feed the engines. The aircraft interiors could be gently lit on take-off and landing while passengers enjoy a genuine, maximum-slumber, “zero lighting” experience during flights.

The Budgetliner could take flying to a new level – no higher than 100ft – and with passenger-operated paddles for landing.