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)

KLM does this as well, with trains between Brussels (ZYR) and Antwerp (ZYR) and Schiphol Airport (AMS). However, it is a "normal" Eurostar (formerly Thalys) train journey on your flight ticket: you check in your luggage between the train and flight and you're mixed with "normal" train passengers. Annoyingly, you can not count this trip towards your Eurostar miles. There used to be a train service from Brussels Central to Zaventem Airport where you checked in at Brussels Central. IIVQ (talk) 07:24, 5 August 2025 (UTC)

Antwerp is ZWE 😉 --Coconut Galaxy (talk) 09:33, 5 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)

All the more telling, seeing as the Late Great Douglas Adams later died of complications caused by deep vein thrombosis after a flight. 124.150.67.115 22:45, 5 August 2025 (UTC)

Continuing on the ground is occasionally done when a flight is diverted to somewhere reasonably close (a few 100km). Of course, they don't take the plane, they get some buses or hand out some train tickets. --Coconut Galaxy (talk) 09:33, 5 August 2025 (UTC)

Massachusetts RMV frowns at the idea of allowing anything bigger than a roller skate on Memorial Drive or Storrow Drive. Stuck trucks at the nine-foot zero inches MIT bridge (oops, HARVARD Bridge) are a regular feature of Boston driving. Airplane wouldn't fit through the Boston motorway tunnels, either. Randall will have to use alternate transport. Perhaps the airplane would fit inside a Tardis? 174.130.100.64 12:30, 5 August 2025 (UTC)