Airbus unveils 'transparent plane'

[Deimos Anomaly]

The airline industry has regressed.

From 1969 - 2003 there was regular supersonic passenger transport available, between the United States and Europe.

Today and for the last 8 years, you ain't going anywhere over 550 mph unless you're military.

 

[DarthTom]

The airline industry has regressed.

From 1969 - 2003 there was regular supersonic passenger transport available, between the United States and Europe.

Today and for the last 8 years, you ain't going anywhere over 550 mph unless you're military.

.

Exactly. I don't understand why there isn't a bigger consumer market for a faster trip from Europe-Asia-North America very quickly. If there was such a market I guarantee the jet engine manufacturers would innovate a way to make supersonic flight more fuel efficient.

 

[Deimos Anomaly]

The Concorde was an abject failure as a faster alternative to quicker flights because of the cost.

Concorde was an abject failure because of the rules and regs that were slapped on it after it was already a project well underway.

When they envisioned Concorde they envisioned it being able to fly anywhere in the world supersonically. By the time it was in flight, the US had banned overland supersonic flight - the lucrative US domestic flight market evaporated instantly as a Concorde prospect.

Some say the ban was more about not-invented-here syndrome and US aircraft industry protectionism (didn't wnat US airliines buying loads of Concordes, cutting into Boeing / Lockheed / Douglass which had decided not to go down the SST route) than about actual sonic boom noise. Either way it happened and Concorde couldn't be a contender for that market. Other major countries eventually followed the US lead about supersonic flight overland. Soon Concorde couldn't do much but fly supersonic over oceans, which left it only good for long routes over ocean with small overland portions at each end, like London/Paris to New York.

The final kick in the teeth was the 1970s oil crisis. Concorde was envisaged with pre oil-crisis prices in mind. And after the crisis prices were never again as low as they were before.

Concorde coasted along for 25 years or so making a slim profit, but the perfect storm of rising maintenance costs, the Paris crash and 9/11 finished it.

 

[Lindley]

^ But the fact remains, those things are not done for show. That's all this is. It's a gimmick for the idle rich (assuming it could ever be actually built). The Concorde has proven that this is no longer viable.

Well, aerobatics are done for show, pretty much by definition.

And there's a majesty to flight which attracts many pilots in the first place. It's not something you really understand in a human air mail tube, but if they can find some way of revealing just a bit of that to the masses, it can only be a good thing.

 

[Holdfast]

Whenever there's a new plane, the manufacturer always witters on about room for bars, games, relaxation zones and what-not. By the time the actual orders come in, you get more seats.

Such are the economics for flying large numbers of the general public around the world.

 

[Thena]

I have a strange quirk where planes make me feel claustrophobic because of the bulkheads. A plane like this seems like it would eliminate that problem. I'd gladly take a flight on one of these... if the airlines don't cram it full of so many seats that you barely have room to breathe.

 

[scotpens]

. . . yeah, this smacks of those articles I used to read in Popular Mechanics when I was a kid, of weird-ass stuff that would never work IRL. Like the plane with three fuselages, side to side.

Or this one with two fuselages, though it looks as if it could actually fly.

Or this concept for a passenger airliner based on the Northrop YB-49 flying wing.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub6U9CL0K_A[/yt]

 

[RJDiogenes]

If they're going to build an invisible plane, they better have stewardesses dressed like Wonder Woman.

 

[Gepard]

Whenever there's a new plane, the manufacturer always witters on about room for bars, games, relaxation zones and what-not. By the time the actual orders come in, you get more seats.

Reminds me of Boeing's pitch for the 787, with lavish interiors decked out with tables and entertainment centers. Of course, the client airlines are all ordering them rammed with seats.

 

[Squiggy]

Whenever there's a new plane, the manufacturer always witters on about room for bars, games, relaxation zones and what-not. By the time the actual orders come in, you get more seats.

Reminds me of Boeing's pitch for the 787, with lavish interiors decked out with tables and entertainment centers. Of course, the client airlines are all ordering them rammed with seats.

Meet the new plane, same as the old plane...BUT THIS ONE HAS LED LIGHTS!!!!

 

[Trekker4747]

To borrow from Ian Malcolm: This is the worst idea in the long, sad, history of bad ideas.

 

[M'Sharak]

Whenever there's a new plane, the manufacturer always witters on about room for bars, games, relaxation zones and what-not. By the time the actual orders come in, you get more seats.

Reminds me of Boeing's pitch for the 787, with lavish interiors decked out with tables and entertainment centers. Of course, the client airlines are all ordering them rammed with seats.

Exactly the same sort of thing happened back when the 747 was the new plane on the block: they were going to have room for cocktail lounges, live entertainment and all that.

No. Seats.

 

[ares93]

Geez, Hollywood is going to have a field day with this. One bullet and he entire top half falls off. Although, it would make some pretty good special effects...

 

[iBender]

They're going to give free shades, right?

I tell ya, it gets MIGHTY BRIGHT outside, flying transatlantic. (Unless I'm flying back to Europe, then that's usually a night flight.)

 

[Trekker4747]

Whenever there's a new plane, the manufacturer always witters on about room for bars, games, relaxation zones and what-not. By the time the actual orders come in, you get more seats.

Reminds me of Boeing's pitch for the 787, with lavish interiors decked out with tables and entertainment centers. Of course, the client airlines are all ordering them rammed with seats.

Exactly the same sort of thing happened back when the 747 was the new plane on the block: they were going to have room for cocktail lounges, live entertainment and all that.

No. Seats.

This is sort of what I'm thinking the airline/travel industry has changed a lot from how it was in the earliest days where having planes with beds, dining rooms and lounge chairs was common place. Today it's about more butts in the seats and as much money as possible to make a thin profit margin. Unless this radical plane idea operates on some awesome meta-fuel that can make a low passenger count profitable the plane is going to be all seats.

All and all it strikes me as the usual flights of fantasy (pun intended) that you see all of the time in magazines like "Popular Mechanics" where wild, futuristic, things are proposed and shown off but the real-world sort of puts the kibosh on it.

 

[UssGlenn]

I don't know what the hold up is on blended wing body planes. you get a massive increase in payload space without increasing the wingspan. Boeing apparently did a study that found passengers don't like theater seating. Since when did they ever care about passenger comfort?