Plane Windows Are SO Last Century; Video Screens Are Where It's At

Plane Windows Are SO Last Century

Windows are so passe.

The Spike Aerospace S-512 will forgo the typical, tiny porthole windows and will sport giant displays that cover the supersonic jet's interior walls.

A spokesperson for Boston-based aerospace engineering and consulting firm Spike Aerospace informed The Huffington Post that the S-512 is expected to cost between $60 million and $80 million and that the jet is being designed to reach a cruising speed of Mach 1.6 (approximately 1,217 mph) and a max speed of Mach 1.8 (approximately 1,370 mph). The S-512 is slated for delivery to customers in December 2018.

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The company writes on its website that it expects initial purchasers of the plane to be businesses that can benefit from the jet's shortened travel times, allowing employees to spend less time in the air and more time conducting business on the ground. Wired notes that the S-512's speed will allow the plane to make the trip from New York to London in "less than four hours."

All the while, passengers will be able to view the environment surrounding the supersonic jet on giant screens playing a live feed from exterior-mounted cameras. Spike Aerospace told HuffPost that the screens can also display other media, such as movies.

The company wrote in a blog post that it ditched windows on the S-512 due to the added weight, parts count and additional structural support required to integrate these relics of the past.

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Unbelievable, you say? Hardly.

High-tech display "windows" are already available for sea cruises. Passengers staying in interior staterooms of Royal Caribbean’s Navigator of the Seas are now able to experience epic ocean views from the comfort of their rooms via an 80-inch wall-mounted screen that displays the feed from a bow- or stern-mounted camera.

With Navigator of the Seas already sailing the open waters, and the Spike Aerospace S-512 set to be flying the clear blue skies before the end of the decade, it seems that people may be spending more time seeing the world through the lens of a camera.

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