"Yeah, the vision for Dulles was way ahead of its time. This concept was revolutionary and was a huuuuge step forward in terns of convenience and comfort for the time. Keep in mind, people were still usually boarding aircraft by walking across the tarmac to boarding stairs during this time, and this was even a huge improvement over jet bridges because passengers didn't have to walk nearly as far to board their planes. Saarinen envisioned these vehicles as being large, lavish, air-conditioned lounged with bar service and couches. The reality of building a vehicle of that scale and keeping it as maneuverable as it needs to be was unfortunately untenable at the time. And with risks of ramp-rash (vehicles hitting planes and damaging them), changing aircraft types, and the advantageous factors of remote boarding just not having that much importance at the time, the concept was gradually abandoned - except for using the vehicles to move people between the terminals, as you mentioned.With changes in aircraft types moving towards mass adoption of high-capacity single-aisle craft which take an untenably long time to board, airports by and large being real-estate locked at this point, dramatically higher and ever increasing demand for air travel, and modern ground vehicle technology, this concept is back to making a whole lot of sense. With modern technology and modern demands, we might finally have the opportunity to see Eero's vision fulfilled."

"I'm not sure what exactly you're alluding to with this comment and graphic, but to address a number of possible topics:•What you're displaying in this graphic is the boarding of a widebody aircraft with two (technically 4) front boarding doors. While mobile lounges could be used to board both of these front doors, widebody (dual aisle) aircraft are not the initial design target, as their boarding process is already more streamlined and doesn't suffer from the bottleneck that high-capacity narrowbody aircraft struggle with. Dual-bridge boarding of narrowbody aircraft has been attempted many times and has been ubiquitously scrapped, because you either have to occupy too much linear real estate on a boarding pier at the airport, or it requires a complex, overbuilt structure that spans over the aircraft wing. These have failed too often for the approach to be feasible.•If you're pointing out the complexity of ground operations around the aircraft during a turnaround, it is indeed a crowded and busy space! However, the aft left-side door is most commonly only occupied by cabin cleaning or galley service vehicles, and only for a short period during the turnaround. Connecting a boarding vehicle to this door during unloading and loading of passengers actually increases the time window during which a service vehicle can dock at this door, as the passengers will be off of the plane faster (and need less time to board), allowing these crews more time to complete their work.Hope this answered any questions you might have. Feel free to ask more."

"how did all of you miss SLEEK?"

"the whole video is ai-generated. there is nothing tangible here"

"Extremely telling that there isn't a single image of a human riding it. All gesture, no comfort. Not everything needs to be bled dry on the altar of uniqueness."

"my guess is they didn't plan to. likely did this to protect equipment and keep the place running for the patients who couldn't be transferred out easily, planning to hunker down with a limited staff to ride out the flood"

"It does seem super compelling, but I can't seem to find literally any info on how it *actually works*I hate to be that guy, but when fantastic claims like this are made without any form of explanation of how it functions, it really discredits our industry"