Imagine a triple-decker plane that could carry 800 passengers, made almost no noise, and generated much of its own power in flight. Barcelona designer Oscar Vinals is working on that vision, and while much of it depends on whether technologies just starting to be developed work out as well as hoped, many aspects of it could become part of more conventional planes.
Some parts of the plan for the plane, dubbed “Progress Eagle” are developments from existing technology such as winglets; others have been proposed by others, such as making the plane lighter and sleeker by replacing windows with large LCD images, and some seem unique, such as generating power by on-board solar panels and a wind turbine. And some depend on learning to use new materials more efficiently.
And even if you’re skeptical about the whole project, Vinal’s project website has a lot more detail, and some of the coolest artist’s conceptions ever, as above!
I couldn’t sleep on a plane like that.
The fear of hitting a storm and having to turn off all the lights to conserve energy.
Or being stuck in Atlanta – again – waiting for days for the bad weather to clear – to charge the batteries.
If only that plane could also take us to the moon, then all my dreams would have come true.
PHeymont, you and I will never see anything like this in our lifetimes. But I like dreamers and maybe in time technology will take us there.