Qantas promises direct flights from Sydney to London and New York

bbc.com

8 points·boulos··5 comments

"Direct" is airline jargon for a flight where you don't need to get off and onto another plane, to get there; you stay in your seat, some get off, more get on, and off you go. "Non-stop" is when it doesn't land part-way.

I don't know the name for when you have to bail out and parachute to your destination while the plane continues onward.

> I don't know the name for when you have to bail out and parachute to your destination while the plane continues onward.

Railways (especially in the UK) used to have something like that under the term of "slip coaches": Rear coach(es) were decoupled on the approach to a station – the front portion of the train continued at speed non-stop, while the uncoupled rear portion was braked to a stand (hopefully not stopping too early, because otherwise a rescue engine would have to be dispatched to draw it forward into the station). The heyday of slip coaches was in the early 20th century, although the practice didn't fully die out until 1960.

The title of the article does indeed use ‘direct’, but the article actually talks about non stop flights. The Sydney - London flight will take 20 hours.

> I don't know the name for when you have to bail out and parachute to your destination while the plane continues onward.

Either D.B. Coopering, or CIA Black Opsing.

"It's the last frontier and the final fix for the tyranny of distance."

I'll take 20 ineffective and one effective video conferences over 20 hours in a plane, thank you very much.

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