The technology of air travel may seem counter intuitive when your frame of reference is the Moore's Law.

But in practice, what happened with semiconductors is the exception, not the rule.

We are still often making wild predictions about the future of technology based on some kind of exponential take-off, it may turn out to be a lot more constrained by physics and energy density.

Supersonic commercial air transport is one such technology, possible and proven, yet not viable.

Mars colonies or interstellar travel could be in a similar bucket.