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The Airplane of the Future May Not Have Windows

Posted by Soulskill on from the terrorists-might-use-sunlight-for-something dept.

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.

7 of 286 comments (clear)

  1. Fine, if by mbone · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Fine, if it comes with a really good imaging system passengers can access. A VR set "would be nice."

    In reality, of course, it would likely mean that only the 1% will be able to see what's going on outside, as that sounds like a First Class option.

    1. Re:Fine, if by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Fine, if it comes with a really good imaging system passengers can access. A VR set "would be nice."

      Meh. I mean, sure that'd be nice. You know what would be MORE nice? Take some of that savings in construction and fuel costs which you'd get from the windowless plane, and give me a slightly more roomy seat with more legroom.

      I'd gladly fly on a windowless plane if it gave me even slightly more legroom. Looking out the window was fun when I was 10 years old, but it's pretty low on my priorities for flying these days.

    2. Re:Fine, if by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It would be an interesting experiment to have rear facing seats, but have the displays inside make it seem like you're going forward.

    3. Re:Fine, if by Ford+Prefect · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I've seen so many incredible things looking out of aircraft windows. One vaguely recent example - a crescent moon during a sunrise causing rapidly changing light on the clouds below. And then there's a wintry Iceland with geothermal power stations venting steam, and ice on Lake Michigan reflecting sunlight in abstract ways...

      Not sitting next to a window is awful.
       

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      Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
  2. motion sickness by misosoup7 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    We're going to need more vomit bags. People who were prune to motion sickness will be worse off without the windows since they are cut off from the last piece of sensory information that tells them that they are moving.

  3. Re:After the first five minutes by MachDelta · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm the same way - I love staring out the window of an airplane. I'll bring hours of entertainment on a flight, and then spend half the trip just wistfully gazing out the window.

    One of my favorite moments (and quite probably a formative moment of my love for window seats on planes) was a landing at Victoria (or maybe it was Vancouver, been a while) airport. I was a young teenager, and was seated just aft of the left wing. I didn't know much about aircraft then, so when we touched down and all of a sudden the rear engine cowling splits in half and rejoins behind the exhaust to form a redirection chute (thrust reversal), and then the pilot throttles up (I've always loved the whistle of turbines and the power of a jet engine) while the plane shudders and rumbles to a stop... I was in heaven. I'm sure my eyes were the size of saucer plates. It was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen, like discovering you were actually riding a transformer the whole time. And that moment of surprise and joy is frozen in time in my memory, along with my love of window seats on airplanes. I'd be sad if they ever took that away.

  4. Airbus wants to make the whole plane a window by binarstu · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From TFA:

    Before that, Airbus proposed eschewing windows and building its cabins out of transparent polymers.

    What that really means is that Airbus wants to turn the entire cabin into a window.

    Also from TFA:

    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.

    Well, I guess that technically, Airbus would be "getting rid of the windows", but if the end result is that everyone on the plane has a better view, I don't think it supports TFA's argument at all.