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Supersonic private jet to use giant displays instead of windows

Supersonic private jet to use giant displays instead of windows

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Spike Aerospace's S-512 supersonic jet project is far from being a real thing, but when the plane arrives and is actually sold for $80 million dollars a pop, one thing buyers won't be getting are windows — at least in the cabin. The company recently announced that the plane will eschew cabin windows in favor of super-thin embedded displays that will give passengers a panoramic view of what's outside. To complete the illusion, the plane will use an array of exterior cameras, or offer passengers the option to replace it with prerecorded footage or static images.

See what's outside, or something else entirely

Spike Aerospace explained the decision to go windowless in a blog post, saying windows typically require extra structural support, something that adds weight. That's not desirable for a plane that's been designed to hit speeds of 1,370 mph, more than twice the cruising speed of long-distance commercial passenger flights.

The S-512 was announced in December, and comes from a team of former engineers at Airbus, Boeing, and Gulfstream. The 18-passenger craft promises trips between New York and London in three hours, or LA to Tokyo in about six hours, something that requires breaking the speed of sound. Of course that's when the plane hits its manufacturing phase, something Spike projects for 2018. In the meantime, the company is still retooling the design for the craft, and plans to spend two years prototyping and testing after that.

Spike S-512 Supersonic Jet

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