Struth! Supersonic airliner is a window on the world

IN his continuing search for the more weird, wacky and wondrous in the world of travel, David Ellis says a company in America is working on a passenger plane that will have no windows, enabling it to fly twice as fast as today’s conventional aircraft.

And although its first supersonic aircraft will be an executive jet it hopes will be flying in four years, it’s also looking at a windowless supersonic commercial passenger jet that could ultimately have you flying from Sydney to Los Angeles in a normal 8-hour working day, and from New York to London in just 4 hours (half the time it takes now.)

Spike Aerospace says aircraft need to be structurally reinforced where they have windows, which means window areas are heavier per square metre than the rest of the fuselage, which is unnecessary weight. Windows also create drag, so it wants to replace them with micro-thin flat-screens running the length of the aircraft’s interior and displaying images captured by external cameras… passengers being able to change images from camera to camera, and to dim the screens next to them if they want to sleep.

Spike, that is working with such experts as Boeing, Airbus and NASA, says its ultimate aim after getting its supersonic S-512 executive jet airborne in 2018, is to “make supersonic air travel available to everyone, so they can explore more of the world, faster.”