I agree with this comment the plan has always been about stealth rather than speed or force. It's an ongoing theme in the book that Sauron is too powerful to assail directly. Sending a Hobbit on eagle back into Mordor seems to fall into the direct category despite how fast they may be and how easy it may be for them to initially get into Mordor.
It seems reasonable to assume that the hobbit plan is more stealth than the giant eagle flying into Mordor plan and point 12 Sauron is an evil Maia with a giant evil domain seems to be the reason why you wouldn't try anything directly especially when he is not distracted.
Also the eagles are not directly under the control of anyone except Manwe, no time in the Silmarillion or the other books does one just say "maybe we should take eagles instead of walking". So the reason they are not brought up as an option is because they simply do not have eagles under their command. Otherwise the same logic can be leveled against every difficult journey in the Silmarillion/hobbit/lotr, e.g. "why didn't they just take eagles".
I can see the conversation being a little bit more like this:
Gandalf: we could ask the eagles if they willing to help us out on this one, maybe Manwe is cool with it now.
Elrond: Sauron will likely see them coming at the least when they enter Mordor.
Gandalf: Maybe he has nothing to stop Eagle's, come on let's take a chance.
Sam: Come on worth a shot look at these flight plans I drew up, will save walking and we will be back in the shire before supper time.
Elrond: No damnit.
Eagle plan is pretty good but I don't see it as being too inconsistent with the world as the article does, e.g. why didn't Manwe just use eagles every time something hard happened in the entire history. The extent of powers of the Maia and Valar are never explained explicitly why should they be for Sauron.
It seems reasonable to assume that the hobbit plan is more stealth than the giant eagle flying into Mordor plan and point 12 Sauron is an evil Maia with a giant evil domain seems to be the reason why you wouldn't try anything directly especially when he is not distracted.
Also the eagles are not directly under the control of anyone except Manwe, no time in the Silmarillion or the other books does one just say "maybe we should take eagles instead of walking". So the reason they are not brought up as an option is because they simply do not have eagles under their command. Otherwise the same logic can be leveled against every difficult journey in the Silmarillion/hobbit/lotr, e.g. "why didn't they just take eagles".
I can see the conversation being a little bit more like this:
Gandalf: we could ask the eagles if they willing to help us out on this one, maybe Manwe is cool with it now.
Elrond: Sauron will likely see them coming at the least when they enter Mordor.
Gandalf: Maybe he has nothing to stop Eagle's, come on let's take a chance.
Sam: Come on worth a shot look at these flight plans I drew up, will save walking and we will be back in the shire before supper time.
Elrond: No damnit.
Eagle plan is pretty good but I don't see it as being too inconsistent with the world as the article does, e.g. why didn't Manwe just use eagles every time something hard happened in the entire history. The extent of powers of the Maia and Valar are never explained explicitly why should they be for Sauron.