Technology is always evolving but before change can take place innovation must strike, and it seems Airbus have some pretty big ideas about how to change air travel.
The company is looking closely at the best method of getting passengers aboard planes, but patent designs that have been made public look pretty familiar to a beloved kids TV show.
Basically Airbus has plans to make Thunderbird 2 a reality.
The basic principle is that the passenger cabin would be detachable from the rest of a plane’s body, with passengers entering the cabin and the cabin then being loaded.
If this method were a reality it would dramatically reduce the time spent to get flights into the air.
The tried and tested routine of plane lands, passengers disembark, plane is cleaned, new passengers get on, would be a thing of the past.
Instead a plane would land, one cabin would be offloaded, a fresh and full cabin would then quickly be loaded in its place. Subject to refueling the plane would then be ready to take off once more.
It is a pretty interesting concept, and you can clearly see the benefit to airlines. Planes on the ground aren’t making money, but quick turnarounds equal more flights and more cash.
But to make money you need to spend it, and current airports would need a drastic renovation to create these portable cabin terminals.
Didn’t Captain Scarlet have a supersonic plane? Seems pretty close to Concorde when you think about it. So that is what aeronautical engineers do all day; watch kids shows.
