Slashdot Mirror
Emirates Planes Could Be Going Windowless (abc.net.au)
An anonymous reader shares a report: In the future, you could find yourself booking an Emirates flight without a real window seat. The airline has just unveiled a new first class suite on board its latest aircraft that features "virtual windows" instead of real ones. The President of Emirates, Tim Clarke, is hoping it will pave the way for removing all windows from future planes, which he says will make them lighter and faster. "What we may have [in the next 20 years] is aircraft that are, and I hate to say this to a number of passengers, windowless," he told the BBC. So there's no windows on the outside ... But Mr Clarke says on the inside there will be "a full display of windows," which will beam in the images from the outside. This will be done using fibre-optic camera technology. So, instead of being able to see directly outside, passengers will view images projected from outside the aircraft -- which is almost like the real thing.
selling ad space
While the Cockpit would need windows, the rest of the plane doesn't. We can still have exit doors, and most of the other things can probably be done via video feed.
Being lately we had a few issues, with Windows failing on airplanes. It is probably overall safer to not have windows.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
There's nothing like seeing it directly with your eyes. Even virtual reality doesn't quite do it. Would you rather be in the cupola of the space station, or watch the views on the NASA channel?
Actually the rest of the plane does need windows. In an emergency, flight attendants are supposed to look through them to see whether there's anything wrong with the wings and engines (and more importantly, which one), since the cockpit windows don't extend far enough back to allow that. Cameras are great and all, but they tend to fail in lightning strikes or when the plane has issues with electrical power.
Why travel at all when you could just watch documentaries? It's less expensive, you get to see more places, and learn about the places directly from experts. The impatient can travel the world with a slideshow screensaver.
There isn't a word to describe these pretend windows. 'Inhuman' doesn't quite fit, as they only we could devise such an abomination.
More disturbing is how few people here seem to have a problem with this. Are we so disconnected from our world that an image on an LCD display is not only suitable but preferable to a window?
Something has gone seriously wrong.
Required reading for internet skeptics
Actually the rest of the plane does need windows. In an emergency, flight attendants are supposed to look through them to see whether there's anything wrong with the wings and engines (and more importantly, which one), since the cockpit windows don't extend far enough back to allow that. Cameras are great and all, but they tend to fail in lightning strikes or when the plane has issues with electrical power.
I'm not an expert and I don't even play one on TV; however, I would suspect there needs to be a balancing act done here. Someone needs to crunch some numbers.
Will the number of lives saved by having a fuselage outweigh the number of lives lost because of every camera being taken out at the same time trying to view the engine/wing. (and all sensors failing to work too). How often are those cameras going to go out?
What I think would be a smart middle step would be to run cameras on some planes that HAVE windows and see how reliable those cameras are. Try that for a few years first. If the cameras tend to work in all conditions... Hey, maybe give windowless a go. If the cameras have problems, aren't you glad you didn't go windowless without a trial run first on a windowed plane?
There might be some advantages to cameras over windows. The lighting can be adjusted so you get better visibility in the dark. Perhaps they can detect infra-red so you can see if the engine is running hot if you doubt the temperature gauge is accurate for some reason. Heck, the pilot can look out the side of the plane himself whilst remaining in the cockpit.
Aesthetically, being in an aeroplane without windows would suck... but I'm all for them looking into whether it really is safer. Just test the camera BEFORE you remove the windows.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
A window on the exit door would have no effect on the structural integrity of the fuselage, so there would be no reason to remove it.
Actually the rest of the plane does need windows. In an emergency, flight attendants are supposed to look through them to see whether there's anything wrong with the wings and engines (and more importantly, which one), since the cockpit windows don't extend far enough back to allow that. Cameras are great and all, but they tend to fail in lightning strikes or when the plane has issues with electrical power.
A few windows might be useful for backup but the vast majority are for passenger comfort. Look at military planes. Even the ones that haul soldiers only have a handful of windows. You could easily eliminate 80%+ of the windows without affecting the visibility of the flight attendant. This would probably actually make the plane safer as windows are a common cause of depressurization. That being said, passenger comfort is kindof a big deal and screens are a poor imitation.
It'll be virtual windows, giving them the ability to display ads to all the people looking out the windows, that's all it is ;)