18 replies to this topic

[FunkySurd]

Hello friends!
Now I had this wierd dream about waking up in an airplane which was made of glass,
a clear see through glass...
Now All I could see was the engine, i could see the clouds and also all the area of the planes,
even the wings internal and the wheel could be seen...
all wires running around...
I was just wondering how would you guys feel or would you fear sitting in one of those kind of planes
if they make it in the future! ??

that's gonna be scary for me and I would not really dare to sit in one unless i'm fully sure that i will reach my destination!

Lemme know what you all think about it!
Cheers

[t3jem]

Well, I suppose if it's made of bullet proof 6-12 inch glass I'd be okay with it since the biggest danger to the glass would be landing and turbulence. Its really like using weak glass that would scare me, but it would be extremely cool to be in a glass plane; however, I doubt they would make glass planes just because of how impracticle it is. You can't just screw a piece of glass to the airplane, the airplane would have to be blown into one glass plane at the same time just because of the qualities of glass.

[Dooga]

That would probably be intensively scary, but I would definitely ride it. It would be like a paid ride in an amusement park!

[sonesay]

That sounds awesome lol. Everything below you and all around you would be going by so fast it would be a different experience from the traditional plane ride. Isn't glass much heaver then the materials used for planes? I don't think this will every happen though since the thickness require of glass to be strong enough would be too great and we'll end up with a bulky plane . nether the less great idea.

[Thingcubed]

While it would be cool for a little while, it would get old as soon as you got above cloud cover, or if there were no clouds. The sun coming through the glass would be extremely bright and all. Now, if the plane were made out of some sort of material where the transparency could be controlled... that'd be pretty cool. If they could turn it transparent just for a couple minutes I'd be down with that. Kinda awkward for anyone in the bathroom though.

[jopak134]

the wright brothers plane weighs 100 pounds i think, thats just a normal weight of a person.


i think it is very possible but it could only support 2 people, the passenger and the pilot. glass is very brittle even the thickest glass is very brittle( compensates because of thickness) they don't have tensile strenght. but a mixture of glass and plastic( can't remember the name but a guess is p/flexiglass could do it.)

i think it's wonderful to ride this one. you can almost touch the clouds that's a nice ride.

[csp4.0]

No, glass would be a terrible idea, glass is very hard (even though it is a supercooled liquid) so that during takeoff, landing and turbulence the wings might break off or something.

Also you can't just "attach" glass wings to the body just like that, the plane would have to be made with the wings etc already on it!

Instead of making a plane completely of glass, why not have a "glass room" on a plane, which basically has the same effect (presuming that you are inside the glass room).

Or maybe like said above some material that can be controlled to allow sunlight through and stuff, but impossible to make a plane completely out of glass...

[Calimero]

VEry interesting.... but yeah i wouldnt be able to get to sleep... to many lights and such

[Watermonkey]

Traditional glass is too heavy to consider as a structural component in a large passenger aircraft, no to mention it's just way to fragile and unable to withstand the flex and temperature extremes that aluminum is able to shrug off. So I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that what you really meant to say is, "What would it be like to fly in a transparent aircraft?" That sound about right? Let's say, for instance, as in Star Trek IV The Voyage Home, it really was possible to manufacture transparent aluminum. I don't really understand why that was so important in the movie, but maybe it'd be kinda cool as a novelty to use it in an airliner to really give the passengers that unique experience they've been dieing for all their lives. I bet there are people who'd pay extra for the thrill of having that wrap-around 360 degree view while flying. I think it'd be pretty neat, too, but I don't think I'd like the landing sequence. Now THAT would be just a little too scary. Even for me... Seeing the full clear, light-pollution-free night sky from 35,000 feet would be awesome, though...

[A200]

This is a very interesting idea.

I imagine it would be scary taking off as everything would disappear very quickly and you could see how far away the ground is.

Then how would everything INSIDE of it be attached? What if the glass smashes or something? And from the wind speeds, couldnt it also get scratched very quickly, rendering it useless?

Nice idea!

It is sort of like the flying elevator from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!

A200