20 September 2010

Airbus - something old and something new

This article has certainly made an impression on me.

Aircraft manufacturer Airbus has theorized a see-through passenger plane for the future, one with a completely transparent fuselage. In this concept craft, the push of a button by the captain would a send an electrical pulse through a high-tech ceramic skin -- making the main body of the plane see-through. The extraordinary design would allow travelers to look down on cities and landscapes thousands of feet below or gaze up at the heavens, giving them the sensation of floating unassisted through the sky.
The sheer terror of having the floor and the walls disappear at an altitude of 12 km... what can I say: they better have the barf bags back pronto!

I like much better the next idea:
The report includes ... solutions for overcongestion in the air, such as pre-seating passengers in pods that are then loaded onto the plane when it is ready.
I have always dreamed about doing my air travels unconscious in the A Team's Mr. T style. If the airline wouldn't mind splurging on injecting or gassing me to insensitive state, I wouldn't mind the size of the pod and the way they stack 'em. Like this, to use one example:

So it's settled, I guess - to everyone's satisfaction. The only problem that bothers me: if up till now we had to rescue our bags from Murmansk* after a good percentage of the flights, now we'll find ourselves in Murmansk. Imagine waking up, groggy, bleary and geared for +30 of Tenerife - in a place where -30 us considered a lucky day... and they lost that sticker with the barcode from your pod...

(*) Where, according to the late and great Douglas Adams, most of the luggage usually ends up.

7 comments:

jams o donnell said...

Yegods, Make the floor of the plane transparaent an I would imagine that my terror would coat part of it in an opaque but smelly substance!

Perhaps they can go one better than pods. For long haul flights we can be fully desiccated, vacuum packed in smally doggy bags then reconstituted at the destination before imigration and customs.

This would have the advantage of allowing  interncontinental jests to shrink to the size of a cessna. Better still it would cut down on overheads like in flight food, entertainment etc while you could save milions on not having to employ cabin staff. Better still it would abolish air rage and hjijackings at a stroke!

Ach the leel of my ow drivel surprises even myself!

Dick Stanley said...

So that's where my bags went back in 2005. Now all I need is a map to find this mysterious place, which I have a feeling is in Russia.

I'm surprised about the disappearing floor idea, and the pod seating (though if each pod was equipped with an ejection system and parachute and flotation device that might not be so bad) because I would have thought that computerized Airbus's next big thing would be fully automated airplanes. Look, Ma, no pilots!

David All said...

Wonder Woman's plane was transparent, if my memory is right.

Dick, about fully-automated passenger jets
After take off the passengers hear an anouncement on the plane's Public address system:
"This is the first fully automated jet airliner flight. There is no flight crew aboard. Do not worry, all possible contiginices have been programed into the plane's computer and nothing can possibily go wrong, wrong, wrong, ...."     

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Yes. To continue this line of thought, passengers, aside of those flying first class, would be better off as fully dessicated and vacuum packed in regular life too. Works everywhere, you know.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Murmansk - yeah, once you have found it, it will stay with you for good.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Hmm... I really don't remember her plane. Was there one or was she able to fly without one?

Anonymous said...

t's such a tickety-boo site. fabulous, very intriguing!!!

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