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See-through planes of Airbus on anvil

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European aircraft manufacturer Airbus has come up with the idea to build a passenger flight with a completely transparent fuselage. The central body of the aircraft will allow passengers to the see the stars above and city lights below. “The planes of the future will offer an unparalleled, unobstructed view of the wonders of the five continents – where you will be able see the pyramids or the Eiffel Tower through the transparent floor of the aircraft,” Airbus said while unveiling the concept… (www.ibtimes.com) More...

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flypilot12
flypilot12 1
I got it: See through clothes in see through luggage!
cmcgee
HAHAHA!
MimosaDrive
MimosaDrive 0
Having more space would make flying more enjoyable than see-through floors...
rdeeringer
I wonder which airline will start with the carnival rides? At what ticket price? Maybe Branson will make this his next project, or perhaps a see through space ship.
pentatp
Austin Wirl 0
This would be so cool!!!!!
aviatorsneah
Jason Brown 0
i would think this would just terrify passengers even more. i think there's plenty Airbus could use (and will use) the cash and research for than to make a transparent airliner with holographic skins.
Barnstormer16
William Cox 0
I'd just like larger windows. I'm always amazed that so many passengers pull down the shade as soon as they sit down in a plane. Others never even glance out the window. I don't think the average passenger wants to see what's out there, and that's a shame.
amullen
amullen 0
40 years away...I'm not going to hold my breath
pentatp
Austin Wirl 0
They need to make the new fuselage quicker!!!
sixpence
lets first see how airbus and boeing manage to cope with the trickery of the new carbonfibre materials. and then i agree to william that most people obviously have no interest at all in flying as a feeling. following the f/a order to draw the blinds instead of enjoying sundown or sunrise or cloud structures or ever more passing traffic, they are just sheep without an idea of their own. at first glance the idea looks attractive but then, there are more urgent items to accomplish like avoiding pilots errors regarding aver more complex computer systems for example.
riterock
40 Years from now, the way we are consuming our natural resources, flying will be so rare that very few can afford.
whk1965
They will just charge 10x ticket price per bag and poof all luggage gone!
mm9135
Marty Miller 0
Can anyone spell Buck Rogers :-)
susie33
sue basset 0
40 years away, I will be dead by then anyway or too old to go on one... stupid idea, most of the time you are in clouds anyway and cant see anything, you would feel cocooned in cotton wool
Hlanfear
Harold Lanfear 0
I'll bet you won't have to wait in line for the bathroom....
MACGSO
MACGSO 0
Whomever it was at Airbus that made such a foolishly outlandish "prediction" obviously has no idea how air travel works today. The vast majority of airline passengers look at flying as simply the quickest way to get from Point A to Point B. They think of airplanes in the same catagory as buses or trains: they aren't particularly interested in flight as a (potentially, anyway) enjoyable means of travel.

The airlines are doing nothing to enhance the flying experience, either. Quite the opposite, in fact. The recent proposal for those ridiculous "bicycle seat" accomodations is an example of the current thought process common in the airline industry: cram 'em in, pack 'em in, stuff 'em in as tight as you can, charge them more for less, and figure out ways to charge even more. Comfort and enjoyment do not translate into dollar signs in their world, so they ignore them.

I'm 68, so I would not be around to see such a ridiculous thing as a transparent airplane, even if it were to happen (which it won't!) Personally, I think it would be neat to fly in such a plane, but then, I'm an anachronistic leftover from the days when flying was an experience to be enjoyed.
wb2cjs
wb2cjs 0
Marty Miller wrote "Can anyone spell Buck Rogers :-) "

--NOT Buck Rogers, WONDER WOMAN had the transparent airplane!!
mm9135
Marty Miller 0
Didn't know Wonder Woman had a transparent airplane. I was to busy looking at Lynda. Grrr.

Buck Rogers on the other hand was futuristic beyond his time.

I agree with the other post, what is the advantage of a see thru hull? In the business world there is an age old motto, "If it don't make money, don't do it".
mm9135
Marty Miller 0
Didn't know Wonder Woman had a transparent airplane. I was to busy looking at Lynda. Grrr.

Buck Rogers on the other hand was futuristic beyond his time.

I agree with the other post, what is the advantage of a see thru hull? In the business world there is an age old motto, "If it don't make money, don't do it".
wdbox
Dave Boxmeyer 0
This I will believe when I see it. What are these people smoking?
jwh1943
Certianly would make it easier to inspect critical areas wouldn't it.
tginmn
Gregg Harcus 0
I would rather have more room inside. Do I really want to see the all the pumps and other aircraft missing me by a few hundred feet like yesterday at MSP.
sixpence
like the number of suitcases for example...
sixpence
like the number of suitcases for example...
purod
purod 0
I think it's great that Airbus is challenging their employees to think outside the box. It may seem like a ridiculous idea, but where would our world be today if people didn't dream?
purod
purod 0
I think it's great that Airbus is challenging their employees to think outside the box. It may seem like a ridiculous idea, but where would our world be today if people didn't dream?
toolguy105
toolguy105 0
They are kidding right. Where do they intend to hide all the electric cables, black boxes, hydraulic and fuel lines that are need to fly the plane. Why would you want this plane anyway? For 95% of the flight you are to high to make anything out on the ground anyway. Another Airbus fiasco in the making!
mstar614
mstar614 0
"Ladies and Gentlemen, please lower your window shades that other passengers may enjoy the inflight movie, Thank you".
mstar614
mstar614 0
"Ladies and Gentlemen, please lower your window shades that other passengers may enjoy the inflight movie, Thank you".
900hp
Matthew Savard 0
to expand on purod's comment, these kinds of creative exercises (almost identical to the "concept cars" you see at auto shows) are designed to cultivate untethered, daydream-level ideas that can be used as inspiration. then in real-world projects, the nucleus of the concept (maybe, in this case, "the experience of sightseeing") is maintained as much as possible while it is pared back to fit the many constraints applied to the work. the theory is that more innovation comes from deliberate overerreaching in the idea stage and pulling back into the constraints, than from starting within the constraints box and trying to poke them outward. it isn't necessarily true. either way, i've never understood the value of making these internal exercises customer-facing. they mostly confuse them.

900hp
Matthew Savard 0
for example, in the case of the transparent skin, maybe the idea of the whole plane having it would be pared down to replacing the scores of windows with just a long strip of the stuff down each side, for a view more like a sightseeing trip than a porthole. maybe augmented by a strip of it along the ceiling. the question is would anyone have thought of that without the wonder-woman Big Idea first. just a hypothetical example.
thecohorts
Matt LaMay 0
It sounds like somebody at Airbus toked on the pipe a little
Az3201
Gary Butt 0
Great, I'll be 99 and too old to be frightened.
wil9148
GOOD IDEA???? IDIOTS!
crk112
crk112 0
this sounds like something you'd see on futurama
AABABY
AABABY 0
Join the Mile High Club, anybody?
A better view would be nice, but that's going too far. Acrophobia, anyone?
DragonStrike
Terry LeGrand 0
That will really help all those people that a terrified to fly, I'm sure they will be just lining up to take a flight in a aircraft like that. Those European guy's over there are defiantly smoking something.
Ryan198416
Ryan Viveiros 0
where you will be able see the pyramids or the Eiffel Tower through the transparent floor of the aircraft,”

So how do they plan on making the luggage and cargo transparent?
Acuariobog
Well, I guess with this new technology passengers will be able to se exactly where the airplane will crash on land!

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