Preliminary design of a short-medium range windowless aircraft

Abstract

This paper describes a new aircraft concept, where all windows, except those for emergency exits, are replaced with simulated windows, which consist of monitors connected to external cameras to overcome the discomfort for the passenger due to the absence of real windows. This concept is developed through an analytical method to estimate the potential advantages for the environment and for airline companies deriving from a windowless configuration for a short-medium range aircraft, within the boundaries of the preliminary design. Actually, the reduction in weight is directly linked to the reduction in fuel consumption, providing advantages in terms of operating costs and emissions of carbon dioxide. The method is applied to four models of short and medium range aircraft, namely Boeing 737-800, Airbus 320, ATR72 and Embraer 190. The results show the benefits of a windowless configuration that become very positive for the operating life of an aircraft and the total fleet, potentially leading to the saving of millions of tons of carbon dioxide every year when applied to the whole fleet of the analyzed aircraft.

Vibro-acoustic analysis and design optimization to improve comfort and sustainability of future passenger aircraft

“…However, the computational cost remains a significant constraint in this type of analysis. Obviously, for the study of new configurations such as in [17] it is necessary to consider the extended concept of environmental and economic sustainability, as reported for a windowless configuration in [19]. Alongside a reduction in fuel consumption, the acoustic behavior did not change and therefore additional acoustic solutions were required, i.e., AMMs.…”