Windowless planes could take off within 10 years BelfastTelegraph.co.uk Those minuscule windows on aeroplanes could soon become a thing of the past, with a UK developer working on windowless fuselages that instead house giant, flexible OLED screens. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/technology/windowless-planes-could-take-off-within-10-years-30696524.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/incoming/article30696465.ece/372c6/AUTOCROP/h342/plane.jpg

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Those minuscule windows on aeroplanes could soon become a thing of the past, with a UK developer working on windowless fuselages that instead house giant, flexible OLED screens.

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Depending on your point of view these would either offer glorious views of the land you're flying over (they're much bigger than the windows) or could be quite oppressive (they're screens after all, and there's no natural light).

The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), which works with developers across the UK, has unveiled a video showing concept art for the technology, with the screens replicating what is outside the plane and showing places and points of interest such as other aircraft the International Space Station in real-time.

They can also be powered down for tiny red wine-induced nap time on long haul flights or show other content like in-flight movies and commercials.

Though it seems faintly dystopian, the technology was conceived with the environment in mind.

"We had been speaking to people in aerospace and we understood that there was this need to take weight out of aircraft," Dr Jon Helliwell of the CPI told The Guardian.

Putting windows in a plane means strengthening the fuselage (this is why they don't bother with them on cargo planes), and without this the OLED planes would be lighter and therefor consume less fuel.

Source: Independent

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