Talk:3124: Grounded

I don't get the joke at all The idea is to simply drive the plane on the ground to the destination. Ok, should we mention this is because they mention the taxing speed

Taxiing speed, not taxing speed. The pilots are not mulling how quickly they can file their 1040s. 136.226.19.75 21:23, 4 August 2025 (UTC)

Even if a plane could taxi at around 60 MPH (car highway speed), 2 hours is only 120 miles. Not many flights on commercial jets are so short. Barmar (talk) 21:37, 4 August 2025 (UTC)

I would hope that Randall was aware of John Finnemore's radio sitcom "Cabin Pressure", as a very compatible sense of intelligent humour (with the 'u', 'cos British!). Though maybe not ('cos British radio, might be too fringe a taste), and so the fact that one of the episodes has a somewhat similar plotpoint to it (not saying which, and how, as anyone who'd like to start listening might just appreciate not knowing "this is the one where..." before it happens) probably isn't worth fully analysing (with an 's', 'cos British! :p ) in the explanation. But just mentioning it here, in passing, given that it reminds me of it.
...also, as well as bridge heights, I hope they have a good idea about carriageway widths, for the undercarriage, and road furniture (like lampposts/roadsigns, and telegraph/powerline poles) plus structures (buildings, and bridge-spans, and even groundworks like cuttings through an overlying grade) , for the wings. Though maybe a flight(/taxi) between two places in a relatively undeveloped landscape, having just wide surfaced roads and nothing more immediately prominent than relatively sliceable giant saguaro cactii. Which I can imagine (for the sake of the joke) in the US, but would probably rule out absolutely every possible road route here in the Uk, for any aircraft bigger than a microlight. (Or an autogyro, with the rotors tied front/back, or doing a Mad Max 2 because of prior damage, but that was also in feature-sparse desert...) 82.132.244.251 22:22, 4 August 2025 (UTC)

American Airlines is already making their flights from Chicago O'Hare and Philadelphia do this! On busses. Yes, busses at the airport boarding gates. They're calling it American Landline. Aaron Liu (talk) 22:48, 4 August 2025 (UTC)

I'm reminded of Douglas Adams's comments on the l2th radio episode of HHGttG, about how delays in getting a flight off the ground (for reasons that were almost entirely pointless) made it slower than making the trip by train would have been, in addition to the plane travel being less comfortable and less convenient. BunsenH (talk) 23:01, 4 August 2025 (UTC)