New planes that can limit window-gazing are taking the magic out of flying
- Thread starter 4strokes
- Start date
- Status
The best theatre in the world is a window seat! This is sad....
Article is behind the pay wall, and so I can’t read it.
But…
Blended wing body aircraft promise even further drag reduction and increases in fuel efficiency over conventional designs. However, the ratio of window seats to interior seats changes dramatically with blended wing body design. There will be very few actual window seats.
https://www.aircraftinteriorsintern...t-look-inside-jetzeros-blended-wing-body.html
And, though I love looking out of them, too, the windows themselves are a structural defect. They add weight, they add extra points of failure. Notoriously, the deHaviland Comet broke up in flight as a result of the cracks that propagated from the window openings.
But…
Blended wing body aircraft promise even further drag reduction and increases in fuel efficiency over conventional designs. However, the ratio of window seats to interior seats changes dramatically with blended wing body design. There will be very few actual window seats.
https://www.aircraftinteriorsintern...t-look-inside-jetzeros-blended-wing-body.html
And, though I love looking out of them, too, the windows themselves are a structural defect. They add weight, they add extra points of failure. Notoriously, the deHaviland Comet broke up in flight as a result of the cracks that propagated from the window openings.
4WD
$50 site donor 2025
As long as Boeing isn't the one manufacturing it.
4WD
$50 site donor 2025
Simple, I’ll keep flying them and you don’t have to …
The view out the window is a map of the world to me. I've found so many places I've gone and explored just by finding them looking out an airplane window. It's my one gripe about the 787, getting the window controls overridden by FA's. (well that and when you want them dark, they never can get all the way dark).
Ah, yes. Okay. Electronic Dimming. New on the 787 and A350. Different story than what I was talking about. Those new windows are bigger, but they can be controlled by the flight attendants.
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2021
- Messages
- 445
I fly to Manila every year and I sure don't want to sit by a window. I pay extra so I don't. The novelty of looking at a window wears off pretty quickly.
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2023
- Messages
- 1,434
And prevents the self-centered, oblivious luminaries among us from bathing the cabin in blinding, 38,000ft radiance when everyone else is trying to sleep on a transoceanic flight.
The view out my window yesterday:
Note: Plane is a Cessna 177RG, flying around Lake Okeechobee. Those are sugar cane fields. Also of interest, they burn sugar cane fields before harvest.
Note: Plane is a Cessna 177RG, flying around Lake Okeechobee. Those are sugar cane fields. Also of interest, they burn sugar cane fields before harvest.
Last edited:
This feature has been around for a while. One of the first to have it was American Airlines. It was available on American Airlines DC-10 Flight 191 out of Chicago O'hare, back in May of 1979.
This was the flight that had the engine come loose on takeoff, and bounce down the runway. The plane took off and crashed several seconds later, killing all 271 on board.
Imagine the horror of the passengers seeing the ground rushing up at them, knowing they were all going to perish. Both sad and horrific.
The comet used square windows which is different than oval. Yes windows in general add stress areas but the comet had different issues.
I know.
That horse left the proverbial barn long before passengers lost full control over the window shades.
The best thing about modern air travel is a full no-smoking cabin. The rest…LOL.
If you want a good, interesting view, take a train.
The best thing about modern air travel is a full no-smoking cabin. The rest…LOL.
If you want a good, interesting view, take a train.
The airlines try to help you by giving people like you options to buy a lie flat bed, they give you sleeping eye masks too. Maybe you should be flying in those suite apartments so you don't have to deal with common folk who have different likes than you.
4WD
$50 site donor 2025
That’s like comparing a 1979 car to a 2024 …
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2023
- Messages
- 1,434
Take a 12 hr flight, open the shade 6 hrs in, and see how that goes for you.
- Status
