03 August 2008
The Pieces Fall Into Place
Long time readers of the blog know of my plan to streamline passenger plane loading and unloading. My idea is to mount the seats on a sled, have the passengers seat themselves at their leisure at the gate, and then have the sled rolled onto the plane in one piece. We've come that much closer to the plan with the development of the Boeing DreamLifter cargo aircraft. The tail swings open so that large items (such as sleds full of passengers) can be rolled right on. The next question is, do people want convenience and efficiency, or windows.
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11 comments:
Without windows, I have a hunch there would be a lot more motion sickness.
With high definition TVs for windows, motion seats, and IMAX films providing inflight virtual reality entertainment, kids will pay extra for it.
I'm with pj - put a couple of cameras and let people choose what view they want for a screen in the back of the passenger seats. It would be kinda cool to have a pilot-eye view, or a birds-eye view from the top of the tail.
The 747LCF is, of course, the latest in the line sired by the Pregnant Guppy. And with all respect I think it is a non-starter. Part of the attraction of flying is envisioning yourself inside something a lot less homely than that.
Mike;
There's a start up here with technology that would be perfect. It's a camera with a 2π steradian view, which can be post processed in real time to a normal perspective looking in any direction in that hemisphere. Put one on each side of the airplane and the passengers can basically look anywhere at any time, independently.
Why couldn't you put windows in? Do they interfere with the skid or something?
Harry: There's no particular reason you couldn't, but one of the selling points for my plan is that the planes could be dual use (freight passengers) with little or no conversion.
Already possible with the installation of 'quick change kits' on 737s.
Aloha Airlines (R.I.P.) had several operating as freighters at night, passenger planes in the daytime.
That's the same thing as a PAX (passenger) pallet that slides into a C-141, C-5, KC-10, etc. But then you still have to board them. David is talking about strapping them in first, and then sliding the full pallet on later. For that I should think you will need a closed module, to keep hands, feet, luggage, children, etc. from getting tangled up in the rails. So no windows.
FWIW, in Tampa they load and unload out the front and back doors simultaneously, and that was pretty quick.
It will never happen.
One word: weight.
BTW, I took a stroll around that plane on the Osaka ramp a couple months ago.
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