Fair enough. You’re right. Aerospace manufacturers have made great strides with airliner safety. I was talking more from the point of view of the basic flying experience which really hasn’t changed much for the typical passenger (i.e., be herded into a cramped cabin, sit in a crappy seat, eat a crappy meal and take 4-5 hours to fly coast-to-coast). I get your point about cars not really changing much either, and aside from safety, comfort and various bells & whistles, there’s some truth to that. At the same time, I think that we might be starting to enter into a new era of rapid innovation in that field (e.g., with self-driving vehicles). I just don’t see that happening with air travel. I’m not expecting a fundamentally different experience 10 years from now. And, as I mentioned in a another post in this thread, I blame that on the heavy government regulation that exists.
“be herded into a cramped cabin, sit in a crappy seat, eat a crappy meal and take 4-5 hours to fly coast-to-coast”
Actually the 4-5 hours is now 5-6 hours, thanks to our high-bypass engines. 40 years ago, the planes were much faster...but they also used twice the fuel.