After two years of scrupulous research, the United States Patent and Trademark Office accepted a patent for one of the strangest designs we've seen for a plane. Airbus's 'convertible' plane designs show a detachable cabin, which would allow passengers to board quickly before being attached to the rest of the aircraft.
In a business that's all about timing, the newly patented designs could allow airlines to cut turn around times considerably. The detachable cabin would be removed from the roof with the help of a specialized crane, allowing boarding and disembarkment to happen in record time. The cabin full of arriving passengers would be extracted and replaced by another, already full of people going in the other direction. Speedy.
For airlines, reducing turn around times is a sure-fire money-maker. A plane flying a route of around 500 miles (for example, London - Zurich) usually makes a 40-minute turn around, meaning that the airline can operate 2,300 flights with that aircraft every year. By reducing that turn-around time by 10 minutes, the number of flights that one aircraft can operate approaches 2,500 - a huge boost to profitability of an airline's fleet. Boeing has estimated that by reducing turn around times by 20%, the overall total cost of managing each plane in a fleet drops by 5%.
For large airlines, as well as the aviation industry in general, the savings could be enormous. The detachable cabin would be removed from the roof with the help of a specialized crane, allowing boarding and disembarkment to happen in record time. The cabin full of arriving passengers would be extracted and replaced by another, already full of people going in the other direction. Speedy.
Prototype detachable cabin would eject in the case of a plane emergency: "Due to parachutes attached to the cabin, which would automatically open once the lower capsule is separated from the aircraft, passengers could land safely on water or on the ground.
The prototype also includes storage space designed to hold luggage under the cabin, so that passengers wouldn't lose any of their personal belongings."
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