The Corruption of Language (4)

The Boeing Company's latest passenger airplane took its first flight last week. In an Orwellian twist, the company has chosen to try an attach a name to this machine by calling it the '787 Dreamliner'.

Executive jets - the last bastion of airborne comfort and service - have names. With very few exceptions, large airliners have not had names since the Boeing 707 went into service in 1958. Those with names - Comet, Trident, Caravelle - were not exactly commercial successes and the companies that sold them no longer make long haul commercial airplanes.

Once upon a time, somewhere between the Ford Tri-Motor and the Boeing 737, even coach class air travel was vaguely elegant. There was attentive service, and a modest level of comfort, together with food that was bearable.

Now, to say that air travel is worse than that experienced by cattle being trucked to the slaughterhouse is only a slight exaggeration. Too many people, crammed into minuscule seats, are forced to suffer inadequate leg room, encroachment from the over sized passenger in the next seat, and disgusting food. Having endured the futile security theater performed by poorly trained idiots, passengers then have to survive the attentions of airline staff members who, clearly, would rather be somewhere else.

In addition to the horrors of air travel from the passenger's perspective, this aircraft is two years late (at least) and several billion dollars over budget. If Boeing really wants a name, then 'Nightmare Cattle Carrier' would be more accurate and go a long way towards complying with any truth in labeling legislation that may apply.

Boeing should forget about the moronic name and just stay with 787 as the model number. Since that follows the company's fifty plus year convention, it will refrain from continuing to look stupid as a result of a lame PR effort that only succeeds in corrupting our language.