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Airbus' detachable cabin concept could save you time at the airport

Soumis
 
There are probably plenty of things that frustrate you about air travel, but waiting to take off or disembark is probably high on your list. Why should you have to board well before the plane is ready to get moving? Airbus might have a way to cut that idle time to near zero, though: it recently received a patent for a detachable passenger cabin that would lift into the airport gate. Your aircraft would only show up when it's actually ready to go, and would spend far less time on the ground… (www.engadget.com) Plus d'info...

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avihais
Martin Haisman 3
Maybe the airlines just need to get organised. We flew Lufthansa cattle class and they had the A380 planed and deplaned in typical German style. No shagging spiders organised and prompt. Air NZ was good too. A few other airlines well you wonder how they actually make money.
bentwing60
bentwing60 2
The usual ne'er-do-wells will still be late.
davysims
David Sims 2
You keep seeing stories about Airbus patenting all kinds of crazy designs for aircraft lately. Do other companies (Boeing) do this as well? Or is Airbus trying to patent everything they could possibly think of to stop the competition from innovating anything?
avihais
Martin Haisman 2
They spend a lot of time patenting ideas and the A380 project still to break even so obviously the think tank is still in overtime without the dollars making sense. They never learnt from Concorde. Boeing is investing in modern and new technologies and seems to stay away from the wild concepts - especially ones that involve major changes to airports or runway alterations.
Dl8698
David Loh 1
They only patented the idea. Did not say they have plans to build it.
amiablebird
Ed Merriam 1
something with a lot of fiddly bits, I presume--even the patents are stripped down for the parts!
joelwiley
joel wiley 3
This particular patent makes me question whether Airbus's designers have ever boarded a commercial aircraft and traveled coach.
TorstenHoff
Torsten Hoff 2
Does it help the passengers? I don't know. You still have to board and trudge down the narrow isles, and be buckled in before your pod is loaded onto a plane, connected and secured. I can see this actually taking more of the passenger's time than today's boarding process takes.

However, there are advantages for the airlines. Time at the gate would be minimized, you could unload a pod and load the next flight with already boarded passengers. The airlines could also have a freight pod and use the same airframe for that.
howej011
Joseph Howes 1
While this has the advantage of quick turn arounds, as it says in the article its impractical for the airports. Airbus also has to consider how it will attach and lock to the aircraft, otherwise you could have problems like the DC-10 cargo door failures.
Dl8698
David Loh 1
Patent ANYTHING no matter how ridiculous or stupid or impractical or impossible it is NOW. In future if anyone tries to make anything that has even the tiniest feature that your patents cover... You get lots of royalty bucks. Hey not so stooopid after all!

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