IXION Windowless Jet
© Technicon Design
You don't need a window for these views. Paris-based design company Technicon Design recently won an award for their IXION Windowless Jet Concept. The idea is to provide a 360-degree view using cameras mounted on the plane's exterior to capture the scenery and then project that on high-res screen on the interior cabin walls and ceiling.

And actually any scene could be displayed on the interior. Let's say the view is mostly clouds or ocean. How about displaying a rainforest? A flight through the Grand Canyon? A trip to the Moon?

Solar panels on the exterior would help power the displays.

Removing windows has its advantages, too. It reduces the materials and cost needed as well as reducing the weight of the plane. Not having windows allows for a greater flexibility of the interior design of the aircraft, too.

"The ethos of the project is simple, to challenge current thinking, and propose something a little different, but not just a fantasy. It has to be credible and relevant, yet provoke discussion," design director Gareth Davies said in a press release.


Other aircrafts are exploring similar ideas of transparent cabins. In 2012 at the Paris Air Show, Airbus presented an aircraft with an interior fuselage made of displays. And earlier this year, Boston engineering firm Spike Aerospace unveiled a windowless supersonic jet with displays.

If these aircraft designs are any indication of the future of flight, we are looking forward to flying.

Source: Gizmodo