6 ways the future of flying will be amazing

Business Insider

Air travel is in a period of great change. With the rapid pace of innovation, airlines and airplane makers are working hard to keep up.

For the most part, the airlines and the companies that make their planes are not all that well equipped to react quickly to change. A new plane takes more than a decade to put into service and its designed to keep flying for several subsequent decades.

Usually, a major industry-wide overhaul to passenger experience happens once every decade or two. We are currently in such a generational shift. Innovations such as new composite-bodied airliners liked the Boeing 787 and the Airbus A350, as well as technologies like satellite-based internet and geared turbofan engines, come to mind.

But that doesn't mean the industry is fresh out of cool stuff. In fact, the pace of development and innovation is only quickening in its pace.

Like the automotive industry, airplane makers and the people who fly their planes understand the need to unpeg the development of aircraft hardware and software.

An industry once bound by the limits of flying metal is heading towards a future where software is growing in importance.

Currently, the industry is working on many potentially game-changing innovations that could find their way into common airline use over the next couple of decades.

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