Jonathan -- Thanks for helping Peter out regarding the Boeing Stratocruiser details. Only about 55 were built, but it served to keep Boeing in the airliner game in the early postwar days. (Fortunately for the "Lazy B" or "Kiteworks" as we knew in Seattle, around 700 more were built as military transports and aerial refuelling tankers.) One major defect was the motors which, with rapidly diminishing returns, were nearing the limits of reciprocating technology. Later versions of the Constellation and DC liners suffered from the same problem: unreliability.

Michael -- Right. I did a post a while ago contending that aircraft shapes (in a general sense) reached an ideal form in the Douglas DC-3 and later, when jets engines came in, in the form of the Boeing 707. The key factor with jets is the speed of sound. It takes a lot of power, fuel, and a whiff of technology to allow a jet to operate in the low trans-sonic speed range (Mach 0.9 to 0.975, let's say). The short answer is that all the extras overwhelm whatever advantage speed gives for domestic routes, and semi-ditto for many long-distance routes as well. So faster jets aren't economically viable now, and perhaps never will be.

Friedrich -- Brave man you have there, driving a camper all the way through Baja. From my plane window I only saw the east (Sea of Cortez) coast, anad it was pretty much desert till one got near La Paz. Softies that we are, Nancy and I were guests of friends in a nice condo on the outskirts of Cabo San Lucas. When I can, I'll do a post of two about it. Key item: Los Cabos is about as isolated as one can get from the main part of Mexico and it's crawling with gringos.

A hurricane did pass south of Los Cabos around the 23rd. It caused heavy surf and probabaly churned up too much sand for underwater activities for 2-3 days. So I hope your guy made it into town to knock back a few Pacificos at the Cabo Wabo.

Posted by: Donald Pittenger on August 27, 2006 2:49 PM