Compared to driving, flying is much faster and therefore more efficient. However there are aspects about the entire process that could be improved upon. For example after arriving at your gate (and assuming you’re early), you will need to wait to board the plane. When it’s finally your turn, you will have fall in line and also wait for everyone to get on board, put away their luggage, allow flight attendants to do their last minute checks before you are ready to fly.
This has been the way for decades and while we might be used to it, it doesn’t mean we can’t improve on it. That’s pretty much what the folks at Airbus have envisioned. In a recently discovered patent, the planemaker has patented the idea of a plane that can have its cabin detached, as you can see in the diagram above.
Basically the idea here is that instead of passengers having to wait at their gate and then wait for the plane to dock and then board it, they simply board this detachable cabin and wait. Once everyone has been seated and it’s time to go, the cabin will be lowered onto the main body of the plane and they’re good to go, thus saving plenty of precious time in the process.
In a way you could think of this concept the same way a truck might load up on shipping containers, in which all the truck needs to do is arrive at the port, load up the container and they’re ready to begin transportation. Of course whether or not this patent will be implemented by Airbus remains to be seen, but we can appreciate the attempt at efficiency.
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