New way to travel by air in the future? Courtesy of Airbus

[Svnla]

Airbus patent makes us weep for the future of air travel = http://mashable.com/2015/10/07/plane-patents-are-the-worst/#3yTDOzrAX5qA

Top or bottom?

 

[Ruptga]

That might be ok IF all passengers get a complimentary bottle of N2O. Actually, they should be doing that anyway - flying sucks.

 

[Newell Steamer]

Might as well skip to the part the airline execs truly hope for:
- sedating the passengers into a limp unconscious state
- piling them on top of one another (maximum capacity literally reached, no space left unfilled)
- dumping them out at their destination (awake / not awake)

No worries about them dying, they sign a waver absolving the company from any responsibility - even if they break your bones to squeeze you in somewhere.

Also, pray the sedative lasts the entire trip (but wears off in time before they dump another pile of bodies on you).

 

[purbeast0]

i WISH i could take a sedative that would knock me out for a flight. that would own if you could take a pill that made you sleep for the duration of the flight. i always have trouble sleeping on planes and get so antsy on long flights.

 

[CraKaJaX]

Obligatory: "I GOT DIBS ON TOP BUNK!"

 

[mmntech]

Airbus has been filing stupid patents like this for years. I think it's more so they can claim royalties in case someone else tries it. Realistically, flight regulators are never going to allow any of it. It would make evacuation in an emergency a nightmare.

 

[MixMasterTang]

i WISH i could take a sedative that would knock me out for a flight. that would own if you could take a pill that made you sleep for the duration of the flight. i always have trouble sleeping on planes and get so antsy on long flights.

It is called Ambien and you can thank me later.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

You don't mind if I'm on the top and fart, do you?

 

[Scarpozzi]

What about the obese passengers that can barely fit in the seats now or people like me that are 6'4". I'm not trying to be insensitive to those with weight problems, but most planes seem to be designed for smaller passengers. Trying to sandwich more people in the same amount of space doesn't seem like a good idea unless you can truly divide the space.

 

[chitwood]

i WISH i could take a sedative that would knock me out for a flight. that would own if you could take a pill that made you sleep for the duration of the flight. i always have trouble sleeping on planes and get so antsy on long flights.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jaunt

As a family prepares to be "Jaunted" to Mars, the father entertains his two children by recounting the curious tale of the discovery and history of this crude form of teleportation. He explains how the scientist who discovered it quickly learned that it had a disturbing, inexplicable effect on the mice he "sent through"- the mice would either die instantly or behave erratically before dying moments later, eventually concluding that they could only survive the "Jaunt effect" while unconscious. That, the father explains, is why all people must undergo general anaesthesia before using the Jaunt.

The father spares his children the gruesome semi-apocryphal account of the first human to be Jaunted awake, a condemned murderer offered a full pardon for agreeing to the experiment. The man "came through" and immediately suffered a massive heart attack, living just long enough to utter a single cryptic phrase: "It's eternity in there..."

The father doesn't mention that since the inception of the technology, roughly thirty people have, voluntarily or otherwise, jaunted while conscious; they either died instantly or emerged insane. One woman was even shoved alive into eternal limbo by her murderous husband, stuck between two jaunt portals. The man was convicted of murder; though his attorneys attempted to argue that he was not guilty on the grounds that his wife was technically still alive, the implications of that argument only served to secure and hasten his execution.

The father then reveals the nature of why any conscious being goes insane or dies after being Jaunted: it is theorized that while physically the process occurs nearly instantaneously (the condemned man traveled two miles between two portals in 0.000000000067 seconds), to a conscious mind it lasts an eternity and beyond; one is simply left alone with their thoughts in an endless field of white for an unthinkable length of time (suggested to be possibly anywhere from hundreds to billions of years). If one is stuck in this horrific limbo, their mind will either shut itself down or be driven insane from the lack of external stimuli. However, the father is careful in his wording to keep from scaring his family.

After the father finishes his story, the family is subjected to the sleeping gas and Jaunted to Mars. When the father wakes, he finds that his inquisitive son held his breath while being administered the general anesthesia in order to experience the Jaunt while conscious, and has been rendered completely insane. Hair suddenly lengthened and white with shock, corneas yellowed with age, the boy (though hardly resembling one by now - having experienced "an eternity and beyond") cackles like a lunatic and confirms the terrible nature of the conscious Jaunt, shrieking "Longer than you think, Dad! Longer than you think!" The boy then claws his own eyes out.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Might as well skip to the part the airline execs truly hope for:
- sedating the passengers into a limp unconscious state
- piling them on top of one another (maximum capacity literally reached, no space left unfilled)
- dumping them out at their destination (awake / not awake)

No worries about them dying, they sign a waver absolving the company from any responsibility - even if they break your bones to squeeze you in somewhere.

Also, pray the sedative lasts the entire trip (but wears off in time before they dump another pile of bodies on you).

Sedation is only standard on first class bulk passenger storage. Those in coach need to supply their own drugs or do without.

 

[John Connor]

Pffft. Airbusted and their fancy crap. Their autopilot was designed by an idiot. The damn thing takes over when there's an emergency.

 

[Charmonium]

What Airbus really has in mind

 

[Sonikku]

Might as well skip to the part the airline execs truly hope for:
- sedating the passengers into a limp unconscious state
- piling them on top of one another (maximum capacity literally reached, no space left unfilled)
- dumping them out at their destination (awake / not awake)

No worries about them dying, they sign a waver absolving the company from any responsibility - even if they break your bones to squeeze you in somewhere.

Also, pray the sedative lasts the entire trip (but wears off in time before they dump another pile of bodies on you).

https://youtu.be/Fk-CE9WAJHU?t=75

 

[Jeff7]

Might as well skip to the part the airline execs truly hope for:
- sedating the passengers into a limp unconscious state
- piling them on top of one another (maximum capacity literally reached, no space left unfilled)
- dumping them out at their destination (awake / not awake)

No worries about them dying, they sign a waver absolving the company from any responsibility - even if they break your bones to squeeze you in somewhere.

Also, pray the sedative lasts the entire trip (but wears off in time before they dump another pile of bodies on you).

The most I've been on was a 7hr flight in a middle seat.
I would have preferred to make the trip sedated. The people on either side of me probably would not have though.



Each person gets a tray. Lie down on tray. Attendant slides the tray into stowed position. Pleasant night-night gas starts, and you wake up somewhere else.
Though....given how often they lose luggage, they probably won't offer any guarantees that you'll arrive where you wanted to be.

 

[John Connor]

What Airbus really has in mind

LOL!

 

[disappoint]

Who needs Ambien or N2O when they can just shut off your oxygen supply?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-W3QbWWbbk

 

[John Connor]

Who needs Ambien or N2O when they can just shut off your oxygen supply?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-W3QbWWbbk

LMAO!

I would love to fly with Cruise in one of his P-51s!

There is oxygen up there though. It's largely recycled in the cabin, but it's there from bleed air and scrubbers recycle it. That's why it's so dry.

 

[dullard]

I personally would really like a twist on that idea:
https://www.google.com/search?q=jap...QAPoQ&dpr=1#tbm=isch&q=japanese+capsule+hotel

More room for everyone, everyone lies down flat, complete privacy, yet they can still cram us in. Too bad there are those silly seatbelt laws that make it impossible at the moment.

 

[master_shake_]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jaunt

wow.

that's a great story.

 

[Jeff7]

wow.

that's a great story.

I guess. Interesting twist on space travel. But....

After the father finishes his story, the family is subjected to the sleeping gas and Jaunted to Mars. When the father wakes, he finds that his inquisitive son held his breath while being administered the general anesthesia in order to experience the Jaunt while conscious, and has been rendered completely insane. Hair suddenly lengthened and white with shock, corneas yellowed with age, the boy (though hardly resembling one by now - having experienced "an eternity and beyond") cackles like a lunatic and confirms the terrible nature of the conscious Jaunt, shrieking "Longer than you think, Dad! Longer than you think!" The boy then claws his own eyes out.

1) That's something of a minor oversight there. "What if someone can bypass this life-saving measure simply by not breathing in the gas for a short time?"
No confirmation of unconsciousness?
"This journey might kill you from insanity. There are no safety checks to ensure that you are in fact unconscious before the trip starts. But you signed the waiver, so good luck!"

2) Not sure how you can be conscious for eons without some manner of fuel for your neurons to run on to let them process information. Hand-wave for an interesting story....ok, fine.

3) If he was conscious for a billion years or so, I don't think he'd remember how to speak, or what the concept of "father" was, much less be able to remember and identify his own. Or be able to remember how to move his arms and fingers in order to claw out his own eyes.

4) Damn stupid kids these days. *shakes walking cane*

 

[chitwood]

well, Stephen King wrote it in 1981, so if you're willing to suspend a little reality, yes it is a very good read.

It freaked me out the first time I read the full short story in Skeleton Crew.

 

[Jeff7]

well, Stephen King wrote it in 1981, so if you're willing to suspend a little reality, yes it is a very good read.

It freaked me out the first time I read the full short story in Skeleton Crew.

I know. Some of us inherently demand at least some level of accuracy or reasonableness (yes, I say it's a word) or consistency in our fiction. If Harry Potter's wand has a phoenix feather core in one scene, it had better not have dragon heartstring the next time it's mentioned, and its basic established properties should remain intact.

(Example: Movies where most of the characters sport an IQ somewhere around 65 just aren't very interesting. There are plenty of other opportunities to deal with stupid people. Escape from reality can be one aim of entertainment.)