Engineering firm unveils plan to seat passengers on top of airplanes
It's a bird! It's a plane! It's...you, enjoying first class on a luxury airplane, soaring through the clouds in a glass dome attached to the top of an airplane?
If you think that sounds like something out of a science fiction novel, let us assure you it's not. And it could be a travel option in the near future.
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The new seating arrangement concept called SkyDeck was designed by Windspeed Technologies, an aerospace engineering firm. Featuring a "safe, semi-exposed" clear glass dome with a pair of seats inside, SkyDeck would give passengers a 360-degree view of the open sky around them -- a true bird's eye view, if you will. %shareLinks-quote="Current in-flight entertainment offerings have not changed much over the decades. We wanted to come up with a product that would provide a higher level of entertainment to reduce the boredom of long flights." type="quote" author="Windspeed Technologies" authordesc="" isquoteoftheday="false"% If this sounds absolutely terrifying to you, keep in mind that Windspeed guarantees the material used for the dome is as strong as the rest of the plane, and will easily survive extreme weather conditions and other impacts, such as birdstrikes:
The SkyDeck will be designed to withstand all load conditions, including flight loads and birdstrike impact loads. The canopy will be made of similar high-strength materials as those used to build the canopies of supersonic fighter jets. We are currently in talks with a major aircraft canopy manufacturer, who will design, build, test and supply the canopies, fully certified and ready-to-install.
While it's not clear if SkyDeck will be a first class entertainment feature or a pair of lucky passengers' flight-long seats, you can be sure that it'll cost you a pretty penny to spend even a moment in the special seat.
A seat in the sky definitely sounds more appealing than a seat directly below another passenger...
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