|
I did a research project on this for a flight class I was taking.
The things are massive, the sheer physics involved are mind-numbing.
The planes, while set up like a luxury villa in the pictures, would be most profitable (and therefore most used by airlines) with a normal sardine setup with tons of seats. The plane would fit a small town inside.
The airplane would require whole new terminals to be built for it, as it has to have at least 2 doors open to haveefficient loading/offloading of passengers (one door for each level).
From an economic perspective, if there are passengers for it, it would be a boom for Airbus, Airports, and the Construction industry.
Morally/phychologically, I dont like it at all. Too big. Bigger is not better in all instances, and there doesnt seem to be a way that there are enough passengers to fill one of these on a flight these days. The TSA has strangled the industry, there arent enough passengers for the flights that exist now. I think it will flop, even if it does make it somewhere on the market, it will not even last as long as the Concorde, which was a good idea, just poorly implemented (the engines were military grade on the Concorde. With proper engines it would have actually succeeded)
|