One of the innovations Airbus is contemplating among a short list of bright ideas in a world wide ‘concepts’ contest is a windowless airliner.
Great. We already have legless airliners, thanks to the cruel end of the low cost airline spectrum, so why not remove all the windows and maybe the lights as well, saving another 0.0001 cents per seat kilometre ?
But surely the way to go is to take on the long, exceedingly long promised giant windows of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner family with a completely transparent see through fuselage. After all, there is no reason composite technology can’t be evolved up to materials stronger than aluminium alloys and plastic sandwiches of reinforced carbon and epoxy resins yet with the transparency of glass. It works for skyscrapers, so it must be able to work for airliners.
This would also take passengers minds off non-existent legroom and the inedible nibbles that pass for snacks these days, especially flying through or anywhere near a really good electrical storm, or approaching Sydney Airport sideways 300 metres above Coogee Beach in a crosswind.
This is what is missing so badly in mass air transport these days since they abolished goggles and roofless seating. Excitement!
3 Comments
Actually I would think removing the windows which are after all basically holes cut into what is an otherwise sealed pressure vessel would result in significant cost savings in both maintenance inspections and in the fatigue life of the aircraft fuselage. (which of course would mean cheaper fares which seems to be all the average passenger cares about). Not to mention that I would assume that the aluminium would be a lot lighter than the equivalent quantity of perspex (or whatever they use) that is necessary to maintain structural integrity where the windows currently are. With modern video cameras I would not think it would be that difficult to embed cameras at various points on the fuselage or wings and provide all the passengers with video feeds of the world outside which would have the added advantage of providing all the passengers with the same choice of views not just those lucky enough to be assigned a window seat.
I would also argue that with the outside reference removed it would be easier to rearrange the seating so that the passengers faced aft which has been shown to greatly increase survivability in the event of a crash.
One thing that has come out of airlines using the broad herringbone pattern seat arrangement in business class (what’s left of it) has been a rise in motion sickness. It seems that it isn’t looking out a window that is as important as having a reference point, even if a distant view of set of windows. However in this type of seating in many cabins using it the passenger’s eye line is always inwards, with the nearest window if there is any over one shoulder or behind the neck. If the flight bounces around at all, particularly a set of turns to line up at Hong Kong, ugly things are happening in a cabin where people used to pay for space and comfort.
But human factors aside, the technical advantages of replacing windows with ultra high definition screens are definitely available now.
Gimme the Goggles Biggles!