Putting on the Brakes: Mankind Nears the End of the Age of Speed

"In the 19th, with trains, they reached 60 mph. In the 20th, with jet aircraft, we could travel at 600 mph. Can we expect 6,000 mph in the 21st?" The 21st century still has 90 years left in it. We have no idea what technologies will emerge in that time. If a technological Singularity occurs, well...

I don't think the space shuttle can be really deemed reusable.

What's really incredible is that the SR-71 was built in the 1960's. I just read Ben Rich's book about his days at the Skunk Works and it was incredible to see what they had to do to build a titanium airplane. Tools would break when attempting to drill through the material. The plan would stretch several inches in length during flight from heat expansion. The cockpit would get so hot that they risked cooking the pilot alive if the air conditioning failed (and don't ever touch the windshield if you want to keep your hands). LA to DC in 62 minutes!<p>I'd like to think we've got something faster now that's just classified but I suspect we've gone to slower remote drones and satellite data that has less political repercussions.

Bit odd that the article doesn't mention the current research into scramjets (Mach 5+) or the Bloodhound SSC land speed record project (~1000mph).<p>Edit: Forgot to add the continued advancement of high speed trains (~360mph) and the Vactrain concept.

Totally incorrect synopsis, humanity IS on the quest for speed.<p>What killed the Concorde was not that humanity was no longer looking for faster ways to communicate, it's that most of their customers died during 911. For the rest of us Twitter / Email, Skype fill the role of quick highly personal information dissemination.<p>Companies like SpaceX and Virgin who dare to explore the boundaries of human travel will take humanity to ever greater heights. They are picking up the torch where the government left it in 1969. One of those two companies will eventually partner with FedEx to offer New York to Sydney 'yesterday afternoon' service. The companies that can capitalize on that kind of mobility and speed will rocket infront of their competitors.

The whole problem is friction. Give me the robots to build an evacuated tunnel from Australia to the US with a maglev train in it and I'll show you what "speed" means.