I have a great idea for revolutionizing consumer air travel.
The secret: convert passengers into luggage.
When you arrive at the airport, you get a hypo in the neck that knocks you out until you get the anti-hypo at your destination. You fly in a tube sort of like the ones in Japanese airports that let commuters sleep during long layovers. You don’t get stressed out by delays, and the airline saves money on passenger cabins, food and cabin employees. Also, the unconscious period would be, as Coach on Cheers once said, a nice break in your day. What do you think?
Stephen King wrote a short story about this. it was in one of his short story anthologies. the premise is that scientists discovered teleportation, except it doesn’t work with living things unless they are unconscious. you can take that instant trip around the world, you just have to get the hypo in your neck to do it. there is of course a creepy stephen king twist to the story, but i’ll leave it up to you to discover what it is.
All would be well and good until people started getting lost as frequently as their luggage. Between the businessmen missing meetings/conventions, the children getting separated from their parents, and the foreign tourists being unable to find the relatives who were supposed to interpret for them, I suspect this would be problematic.
Just in case you’re interested in the short story, I think it was from SKELETON CREW (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0451168615/o/qid%3D990830039/sr%3D8-1/107-5828276-9672522)