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The Airplane of the Future May Not Have Windows
merbs writes: Hope you're not too attached to looking out the windows when you fly — the designers of tomorrow's airplanes seem intent on getting rid of them. A Paris design firm recently made waves when it released its concept for a sleek, solar paneled, windowless passenger jet. Before that, Airbus proposed eschewing windows and building its cabins out of transparent polymers. Now, the Center for Process Innovation has floated its own windowless plane concept, and it's attracting plenty of headlines, too.
Maybe if you fly every week, it does. I fly rarely (almost a decade since my last flight), and I find it nice to look at the clouds, other planes, patterns on the ground, lights at night, the mountains. And now that I have a few kids, I can't wait for them to get to see it. Windowless plane sounds terrible to me.
I see no mention of anything of the sort in the article. With engine power outputs on the order of megawatts, of what possible use is adding fragile solar panels to an airframe?
Mostly random stuff.
And that is why I refuse to use those new-fangled elevators without windows.
Yeah I hate those danged 12 hour elevator rides...
Having your brain reconcile the forward motion on the screen with the backward-indicating thrust and inertia should be fun :)
That'll trigger an instant vomiting reflex in a lot of people. Turns out that our brains think that conflicting visual and vestibular cues mean that we'd ingested something very psychoactive and it's time to try and get rid of it.
Why in the world would you think the emergency exits wouldn't have windows? I mean seriously, do you think everyone else in the world is a total idiot?
I can't get people to shut the dinky windows when I try to sleep on flights now. I hate those sleep masks. I hate flying and I am afraid of heights. For a few years now I joked about how they should make glass-bottom airplanes. I joked because it is ridiculous, just as this is.
Sardines don't need windows.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Sorry folks, you'll just have to stand in that flying cattle car. And don't forget to wear your adult diapers, they won't have restrooms either.
WHAT! Actually give the passenger some comfort? The airlines would never let that happen.
"A 'person' is smart. 'People' are dumb, panicky animals and you know that."