The commercial flight cabin as we know it may be on its way out.
That’s according to a new report from the Centre for Process Innovation, a British technology research company, which projects that in 10 years the industry will be ready to offer passengers a richer visual experience than what a small, fogged-up plastic window allows.
In the CPI design, familiar rectelliptical airplane windows are replaced with giant OLED displays lining the inside of the plane’s fuselage. (OLEDs, organic light-emitting diodes, are the same technology behind recent light, ultrathin, high-end televisions.)
Here’s a video introducing the design:
The screens could be used to display images of the exterior of the airplane, as well as information relevant to passengers. CPI said that the technology necessary to manufacture the displays for the same price as current displays is just five years out.
Here are a few more renderings of the (for now rather speculative) windowless plane:
On Twitter, people were quick to point out some potential pitfalls of the idea, using Photoshop :
Here’s a Photoshop file (download) you can use to make your own.