Enjoying the Journey While It Can Still Be Enjoyed
Tauhid Nur Azhar
On a long-haul flight using Qatar Airways’ advanced B-788, I had a layover and got a few hours of rest at Hamad International Airport in Doha.
I utilized the transit time to rest, considering that my activities at my destination were already packed. With limited time to acclimate, plus jet lag due to the time difference and uncertain melatonin levels, I decided to take a nice rest in the airport’s lounge area.
But for some reason, I had trouble sleeping that night, maybe because of a traumatic experience on my previous trip, where I overslept and almost missed my boarding call.
So, I decided to leave the lounge and take some selfies with the iconic Doha airport bear mascot. Maybe if Soetta had a giant Cepot mascot, it could be an Indonesian icon too?
After feeling full from the food and drinks served on the long-haul flight, I wandered around the food court, not buying anything. Why? Because from the food court on the second floor, I could see the apron and part of Doha’s futuristic aerodrome structure.
I saw various wide-body aircraft parked perfectly at their parking stands, connected to the jet bridges. Maybe those jet bridges were made by Bukaka Indonesia?
Various types of wide-body aircraft from around the world and intercontinental connectors were docked at this international airport. There was a Boeing 773 extended range, also owned by Garuda Indonesia, and various new-generation aircraft like the A-359 Airbus and its competitor, the B-787.
On a different occasion, during my transit at Dubai Airport, I was amazed by the lineup of A-380s, the queen of the skies, double-decker aircraft still operated by Emirates, with dozens of them parked. It was like seeing dozens of giant whales lined up at a dock.
That night at Hamad, I was fascinated by the appearance of an Airbus A-350, which had just been launched for its maiden flight. Until then, I only knew about it through various information about Airbus Industries’ future concept aircraft.
With a total length of 66.8 meters, a height of 17.05 meters, and a wingspan of 64.75 meters, and a maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) of 280 tons, and a capacity of 300–350 passengers in a three-class standard configuration, the A-350 can fly 18,000 km non-stop with two Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-75 engines. It’s one of my dream aircraft.
The A350–900 or A350–1000, which can fly non-stop for 16,100 km, was previously conceptualized as the XWB or extra wide body, capable of carrying over 300 passengers. It has implemented a more energy-efficient propulsion system, environmentally friendly, and is expected to become one of the preferred air transportation modes in the future.
Not only the A-350 series is evolving, but it’s also known that Lufthansa, a German airline, has started using environmentally friendly biofuels.
My other dream is to see electric and hydrogen-powered aircraft with futuristic designs flying through the skies with very low emissions and high speeds.
The Japanese automotive industry, Toyota, has pioneered the development of hydrogen-powered vehicles, which are expected to become one of the innovations that will change civilization in the future.
Hydrogen can be produced through various methods, including electrolysis of water and hydrocarbon processing. One of the main advantages of hydrogen is that when oxidized in a chemical reaction, the only byproduct is water.
Hydrogen-powered engines currently use fuel cells or internal combustion engines.
In fuel cells, hydrogen and oxygen (from the air) react electrochemically to produce electricity, with water as the byproduct. This type of engine is usually more efficient and has zero emissions during use. However, the limited infrastructure for hydrogen refueling and high production costs are still major challenges.
Internal combustion engines with hydrogen fuel, on the other hand, simply replace liquid or gas fuel with hydrogen. This type of engine has the advantage of infrastructure, as it can use existing gas fueling infrastructure.
If the fuel cell model is chosen as the method for harnessing electrons from hydrogen, then electric and hydrogen-powered aircraft can be developed by combining electric motor technology and hydrogen ion utilization to power the engine.
The process can be seen as follows: hydrogen is produced through electrolysis of water using electric energy. Electrolysis breaks down water molecules (H2O) into hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2), which are then stored in special tanks.
The hydrogen produced from electrolysis is channeled to the fuel cell. In the fuel cell, hydrogen reacts with oxygen from the air to produce electricity and water as the byproduct.
The electricity generated by the fuel cell is used to power the electric motor of the aircraft. The motor drives the propellers or turbine propulsion to produce the necessary thrust to move the aircraft forward.
As the morning sun began to rise, casting a reddish glow on the eastern horizon, I headed to the gate where my connecting flight would soon depart.
There’s a sudden sense of longing that pierces my consciousness as I’m about to leave this airport. It can’t be described with words, because this feeling seems to narrate a story about the intricacies and complexities of travel.
No wonder that at one point, an air nomad boldly bought a pass offered by American Airlines, and later proved that there were strategic decisions worth celebrating.
In the early 1980s, American Airlines launched a lifetime unlimited flight ticket program, priced at $250,000 or approximately IDR 4 billion (at an exchange rate of 1 USD: IDR 16,241).
The program was called AAirpass, a lifetime unlimited first-class ticket that allowed its holder to fly anywhere on American Airlines’ network.
The AAirpass program was conceived as part of a quick win strategy to overcome the airline’s acute liquidity crisis at the time.
By paying a quarter of a million dollars, AAirpass holders could have access to every American Airlines flight service whenever, wherever, and however they wanted.
As a result, a super traveler named Steve Rothstein happily bought an AAirpass. And since then, American Airlines began to feel that the program had turned into a disaster.
Steve Rothstein fully utilized the service, taking around 10,000 free first-class flights, and by the time the program was terminated by American Airlines, Steve Rothstein was estimated to have traveled and accessed AA services worth $21 million.
If I had the funds and received an offer like this, which far exceeded my personal expectations, I would almost certainly take it, just like Rothstein’s thinking, wouldn’t I?
We can imagine how hypersonic flights, which can reach speeds of over 5 Mach or the speed of sound, and even in March 2020, there was a mode that could travel at speeds of over 25 times the speed of sound, could revolutionize intercontinental transportation by flying at certain angles up to an altitude of 83–100 km above the Earth’s surface, which is the Karman line or the Earth’s atmosphere boundary, and then dive back down to a specific coordinate on the Earth’s surface, making intercontinental travel that normally takes hours, possible in just minutes.
Rocket technology like DART AE, which powers hypersonic aircraft, has been able to achieve speeds of up to 7 Mach. Facilities like the Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE) are also assets for preparing the concept of hypersonic flight that can be used by the public. Or maybe even cargo delivery in the future.
So let’s imagine, if aircraft and advanced technologies like electric motor-based propulsion systems, hydrogen utilization, and suborbital hypersonic flight concepts become part of future flight concepts, there will be a shift in our understanding of space and time. Will the level of longing still be the same as in the past, when distance in space had to be traversed with time, giving a different subjective effect?
Because longing, for example, can now be resolved in under 30 minutes with the help of the KCIC high-speed train, it’s different from the past when it took 1–2 days to travel between Bandung and Jakarta.
The shift that occurs will be destructive and deconstructive, because the meaning of distance and time is no longer the main constructor of longing. Even maybe in the future, when quantum teleportation becomes possible, non-material entities will need to redefine the concept of longing.
Enjoy your journey, while it can still be enjoyed.
