17 March 2014

Passenger airplanes without windows

An article in The Telegraph ponders a possible future:
For the engineers, the removal of windows will facilitate passenger relaxation and reduce in-flight exertion by ensuring “no more glaring sun and no more shades to pull down or push up”. More pertinently, the absence of windows will reduce the weight of the aircraft – the insertion of windows requires additional structural supports and parts – and will lessen drag, thus diminishing travel times and fuel costs. In place of windows, the jet’s interior walls will be covered in thin display screens. Cameras on the exterior of the aircraft will be able to transmit footage of the surrounding panoramas...

The firm is so assured of the benefits of windowless cabins that it anticipates them to become the norm on all new aircraft within the next 20 years...

Passengers willing to fly in a windowless fuselage may need to consider other potential problems. Should the technology falter during the flight, for example, passengers would be plunged into darkness and would have no other means to look out of the aircraft...

Windows are not just there to allow passengers to get accustomed to the ambient light outside in case of an emergency, but also to allow emergency workers to see in, in case they need to cut into the aircraft.
The concept is illustrated at the link with images of wide, plush airline seats that you and I will never sit in.  For some reason, I don't like the concept...


photo credit

12 comments:

  1. I would think that windowless aircraft would seriously increase the fear factor for those who are even mildly claustrophobic. I for one would not want to fly in a plane where I could not see what was outside. I already have issues with surrendering control to unknown persons behind the cockpit door. At least now I can see what's out there and what's going on without having to rely on electronic displays that can always be shut off.

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  2. No windows would be a horror show. Flying is like a cramped bus in the sky, do we need to make it a really long elevator ride? Being able to take a look out a window and see what's out there is something that calms me down.
    Anyone who thinks a windowless plane would be a good idea is a soulless jackass who doesn't give a darn about other people, their desires, or their comfort.

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    1. Seriously? Do you realize that you're describing yourself in the second paragraph?

      Suppose this becomes a real thing, eventually Airline 'A' will tout the cheaper, more efficient planes and Airline 'B' will say "hey, we still have windows." You just vote with your dollars. How can you pass blanket judgment on engineers looking at more efficient designs or those that would prefer the smaller carbon footprint?

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    2. Its easy to pass blanket judgement on engineers who seem to have forgotten they are engiineering systems for use by humans. Worked in R&D for years anyone came to my desk with such a design would have gotten an"Are you kidding?".

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  3. If a concept like that ever gets approved by all the different aviation authorities, then I'd say yes, I probably would accept flying in an aircraft like that. If you can virtually replicate the experience of having windows, only without the holes in the fuselage, then it shouldn't really make a difference. I highly doubt that this will ever happen though. You can't rely on electronics to provide the same functionality as a hole.

    And it doesn't even have to fail: what if the aircraft experiences any sort of problem with the electrical power supply? The standard procedure is to divert all the available power to critical systems, and huge screens will almost certainly be a big power sink, so they'll be the first to go. Then you have an aircraft in potential trouble full of passengers with no spatial awareness... yeah, not a great idea I reckon.

    But as it stands, it's an idea in the head of that one guy for that one airplane that will probably never get past the stage of pretty 3D drawings. The new aircraft of 20 years in the future will be new versions of the ones of today, not supersonic windowless lounges (as depressing as that may be).

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  4. Isn't one recommendation in an emergency evacuation to look out of the emergency windows to see if fire is outside that part of the fuselage? IIRC, if the wing is on fire, you're not supposed to try to evacuate out that emergency exit. So how will you be able to tell? Put your hand on the wall to see if the inside wall is hot?

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  5. An excellent point and such a point is only possible when one rembers a passneger plane is engineered to transport human beings and not just a specific range of mass.

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    1. That. Some readers who are my age will remember when it was quite fun to take a commercial flight. We used to get dressed up for the occasion. There was lots of room for carry-on baggage. Children would get invited to visit the cockpit. Getting there was half the fun.

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  6. Did they have windows on the Starship Enterprise? Or just that holodeck thingie? Part of our reaction to the windowless plane is what is current convention; part of it is scale. We've "always" had windows. Therefore we need to keep 'em. On the other hand, if the plane were large enough, being someplace in the windowless middle might feel no different than being in a windowless room -- assuming no turbulence.

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    1. There are windows on current manned space craft. The Starship Enterprise is a set used for a fictional tales, no one works on it, no one takes a trip on it, and no one has need to look outside of it unless the script demands they do so.
      There are lot of windows on the model of the fictional starship:http://www.trekplace.com/article04.html

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  7. My initial reaction was that it might be cool to replace the concept of tiny windows with full-size video screens, but then I realized that video screens cannot provide the same experience as windows - at all. You can't change what you see by looking at the window from a different angle.

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