Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren vog obam here. When commercial air travel first started
Speaker 1: to catch on in the nineteen thirties, one of the
Speaker 1: big attractions for passengers was the chance to stare out
Speaker 1: the window at the landscape from a startlingly new perspective
Speaker 1: high above it. Of course, many of us still like
Speaker 1: to gaze out in wonder from those little portals. A
Speaker 1: survey by Quarts in fourteen found that more than half
Speaker 1: of Americans prefer having a window seat on an airline,
Speaker 1: though people who fly more than once a year are
Speaker 1: more evenly split between window and aisle seats. That's why
Speaker 1: you may be surprised to learn that for decades, aircraft
Speaker 1: designers have been contemplating planes with video screens instead of
Speaker 1: passenger windows. Back in the mid nineteen nineties, NASA actually
Speaker 1: built and flew an experimental Boeing seven thirty seven with
Speaker 1: a windowless cockpit equipped with digital and infrared cameras and
Speaker 1: video monitors, and in the UK based Center for Process
Speaker 1: Innovation unveiled a design for a windowless airliner in which
Speaker 1: the entire interior of the cabin would be lined with thin,
Speaker 1: flexible high definition video screens that would provide lighting and
Speaker 1: entertainment as well as a more expansive view of the outside,
Speaker 1: but concept has been put into practice. Last April, Dubai
Speaker 1: based airline Emirates debuted Boeing seven seventy seven's with enclosed
Speaker 1: private suites equipped with virtual windows to provide a view
Speaker 1: of the outside from the middle of the plane. We
Speaker 1: spoke via email with Jerome de Mare, and Emirates public
Speaker 1: relations official. He said the virtual windows were installed for
Speaker 1: first class suites located in the middle aisle as they
Speaker 1: are fully enclosed suites with floored ceiling doors and passengers
Speaker 1: would not be able to view the windows on these
Speaker 1: sides of the aircraft. We asked him how they worked
Speaker 1: and he explained these virtual windows project the view from
Speaker 1: outside the aircraft using real time camera technology. The cameras
Speaker 1: are placed in strategic locations to offer passengers a real
Speaker 1: time view outside the aircraft. The actual view is determined
Speaker 1: by which side of the aircraft the entrance to the
Speaker 1: suite is right or left, and that is the view
Speaker 1: that will appear in the center suites. The cameras are
Speaker 1: high resolution devices which offer a very clear, wide view
Speaker 1: of the outside the virtual window provides a sharp, clear,
Speaker 1: realistic view of what's outside. Anecdotally, passengers have told us
Speaker 1: that they prefer the view to that of real windows.
Speaker 1: In a BBC News article, Emirates President Sir Tim Clark
Speaker 1: was quoted about the future possibility of planes without windows,
Speaker 1: but Demyer said that there are no current plans for
Speaker 1: a windowless airliner. However, at least one aircraft manufacturer does
Speaker 1: aim to go windowless on a smaller scale. For the
Speaker 1: past several years, a privately owned Boston based company, Spike Aerospace,
Speaker 1: has been working to develop the Spikes five, twelve and
Speaker 1: eighteen passengers supersonic business jet, packed with technology that will
Speaker 1: enable it to cut travel times significantly without excess fuel
Speaker 1: consumption or loud sonic booms, and will do all of
Speaker 1: that without passenger windows. The aircraft's design will include what
Speaker 1: Spike Airspace calls a multiplex digital cabin. Instead of gazing
Speaker 1: through the usual small portal windows, passengers will be able
Speaker 1: to watch a pair of twenty foot long that's six
Speaker 1: meter digital video screens that will stretch the length of
Speaker 1: the cabin on either side of the aircraft. Multiple high
Speaker 1: definition cameras mounted on the exterior of the plane will
Speaker 1: provide four K video, which computers and the aircraft will
Speaker 1: stitch together using special software developed by the company. We
Speaker 1: spoke with Spike Airspace President and chief executive Officer Vic Cachoria,
Speaker 1: who explained, whatever image you want to see can be displayed.
Speaker 1: You can see left or right, in front of the
Speaker 1: plane or behind it, looking down or up into the sky.
Speaker 1: It's a more panoramic view than the very limited view
Speaker 1: that you can see out of a porthole window. Eliminating
Speaker 1: conventional acrylic glass windows from an aircraft could have other
Speaker 1: advantages as well. It would insulate the fuselage, making it
Speaker 1: possible to reduce noise from the engines. It would also
Speaker 1: strengthen the aircraft and make it safer. Some serious engineering
Speaker 1: goes into making those windows sturdy enough to withstand the
Speaker 1: stresses of flight, and besides providing a more expansive view,
Speaker 1: such a video system could also utilize geolocation and display
Speaker 1: augmented reality data about the landscape that the plane is
Speaker 1: flying over, or Passengers might be able to choose from
Speaker 1: other content a display movies, for example, or a power
Speaker 1: point presentation. The aircraft's pilots would still have a conventional
Speaker 1: window in the cockpit, along with some of that advanced
Speaker 1: video technology. Cutoria says that Spike Airspace has several more
Speaker 1: years of engineering to complete on their aircraft and then
Speaker 1: has to go through the testing and certification process. He
Speaker 1: envisions delivering the first jet without conventional passenger windows. In Initially,
Speaker 1: only corporate executives and people wealthy enough to afford a
Speaker 1: private jet would be able to experience Spike Airspaces windowless flights,
Speaker 1: but Catoria expects that the innovative technology eventually will find
Speaker 1: its way into regular airliners as well. Today's episode was
Speaker 1: written by Patrick Jake Tiger and produce by Tyler Clay.
Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is a production of I Heart Radios How
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