Are Windowless Airplanes the Future of Flight?

The view out an airplane window is one of the perks of flying, but some airlines are experimenting with windowless planes -- and advanced digital displays. Learn how these planes hope to deliver better-than-real views in this episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,
Lauren vog obam here. When commercial air travel first started
to catch on in the nineteen thirties, one of the
big attractions for passengers was the chance to stare out
the window at the landscape from a startlingly new perspective
high above it. Of course, many of us still like

(00:22):
to gaze out in wonder from those little portals. A
survey by Quarts in fourteen found that more than half
of Americans prefer having a window seat on an airline,
though people who fly more than once a year are
more evenly split between window and aisle seats. That's why
you may be surprised to learn that for decades, aircraft
designers have been contemplating planes with video screens instead of

(00:43):
passenger windows. Back in the mid nineteen nineties, NASA actually
built and flew an experimental Boeing seven thirty seven with
a windowless cockpit equipped with digital and infrared cameras and
video monitors, and in the UK based Center for Process
Innovation unveiled a design for a windowless airliner in which
the entire interior of the cabin would be lined with thin,

(01:06):
flexible high definition video screens that would provide lighting and
entertainment as well as a more expansive view of the outside,
but concept has been put into practice. Last April, Dubai
based airline Emirates debuted Boeing seven seventy seven's with enclosed
private suites equipped with virtual windows to provide a view
of the outside from the middle of the plane. We

(01:29):
spoke via email with Jerome de Mare, and Emirates public
relations official. He said the virtual windows were installed for
first class suites located in the middle aisle as they
are fully enclosed suites with floored ceiling doors and passengers
would not be able to view the windows on these
sides of the aircraft. We asked him how they worked
and he explained these virtual windows project the view from

(01:50):
outside the aircraft using real time camera technology. The cameras
are placed in strategic locations to offer passengers a real
time view outside the aircraft. The actual view is determined
by which side of the aircraft the entrance to the
suite is right or left, and that is the view
that will appear in the center suites. The cameras are
high resolution devices which offer a very clear, wide view

(02:12):
of the outside the virtual window provides a sharp, clear,
realistic view of what's outside. Anecdotally, passengers have told us
that they prefer the view to that of real windows.
In a BBC News article, Emirates President Sir Tim Clark
was quoted about the future possibility of planes without windows,
but Demyer said that there are no current plans for
a windowless airliner. However, at least one aircraft manufacturer does

(02:36):
aim to go windowless on a smaller scale. For the
past several years, a privately owned Boston based company, Spike Aerospace,
has been working to develop the Spikes five, twelve and
eighteen passengers supersonic business jet, packed with technology that will
enable it to cut travel times significantly without excess fuel
consumption or loud sonic booms, and will do all of

(02:56):
that without passenger windows. The aircraft's design will include what
Spike Airspace calls a multiplex digital cabin. Instead of gazing
through the usual small portal windows, passengers will be able
to watch a pair of twenty foot long that's six
meter digital video screens that will stretch the length of
the cabin on either side of the aircraft. Multiple high

(03:17):
definition cameras mounted on the exterior of the plane will
provide four K video, which computers and the aircraft will
stitch together using special software developed by the company. We
spoke with Spike Airspace President and chief executive Officer Vic Cachoria,
who explained, whatever image you want to see can be displayed.
You can see left or right, in front of the
plane or behind it, looking down or up into the sky.

(03:40):
It's a more panoramic view than the very limited view
that you can see out of a porthole window. Eliminating
conventional acrylic glass windows from an aircraft could have other
advantages as well. It would insulate the fuselage, making it
possible to reduce noise from the engines. It would also
strengthen the aircraft and make it safer. Some serious engineering
goes into making those windows sturdy enough to withstand the

(04:01):
stresses of flight, and besides providing a more expansive view,
such a video system could also utilize geolocation and display
augmented reality data about the landscape that the plane is
flying over, or Passengers might be able to choose from
other content a display movies, for example, or a power
point presentation. The aircraft's pilots would still have a conventional
window in the cockpit, along with some of that advanced

(04:24):
video technology. Cutoria says that Spike Airspace has several more
years of engineering to complete on their aircraft and then
has to go through the testing and certification process. He
envisions delivering the first jet without conventional passenger windows. In Initially,
only corporate executives and people wealthy enough to afford a
private jet would be able to experience Spike Airspaces windowless flights,

(04:46):
but Catoria expects that the innovative technology eventually will find
its way into regular airliners as well. Today's episode was
written by Patrick Jake Tiger and produce by Tyler Clay.
Brain Stuff is a production of I Heart Radios How
Stuff Works. For more in this and lots of other
panoramic topics, visit our home planet how stuff Works dot com,

(05:08):
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