Emirates airline plans to abandon portholes on its aircraft
Where portholes are located on ordinary planes, Emirates' first class has round screens that display images from cameras mounted on the aircraft's skin via fiber optics. The image is "so high-quality that everything looks much better than if you were looking with your own eyes," says Emirates President Tim Clark. According to BBC, the company aims to transition to aircraft with no portholes at all in the future, he says.
"Imagine: you board a plane with no windows on the outside of the fuselage. But when you get inside, you see portholes," says Emirates President. Clark believes this will optimize aircraft design: "In the design of such a windowless fuselage, there are no structurally weak points. The plane becomes lighter, flies faster, higher, and uses much less fuel."
According to Professor Graham Braithwaite of Britain's Cranfield University, windowless planes could be unsafe: flight attendants in emergencies need to see what is happening outside themselves.
"Flight attendants in an emergency will need to check the situation outside to see, for example, if there is fire before opening an emergency exit and starting evacuation," says the professor. "If they need to use systems that depend on electrical power for this, aviation regulators will hardly approve such a solution easily," he believes.
However, the European Aviation Safety Agency stated they see no problem. "We see no difficulties that cannot be overcome to ensure the same level of safety as in aircraft with portholes," says a regulator representative.
Another possible drawback of a closed aircraft is that such an innovation could cause passenger discomfort, Braithwaite believes. "Such a plane could easily trigger claustrophobia, and flying is already a source of stress for many," he says. "The refresh rate of the screens could also cause unforeseen side effects: will they flicker? What will the delay be? How will their glow affect passengers on long flights?"
Aviation expert John Strickland agrees that a windowless plane is stronger than one with windows, and if it turns out lighter than a regular plane, it will also be more economical. "Anything that makes a plane lighter helps save fuel," he says.
However, the expert himself still prefers real portholes. "I'm a bit obsessed with windows. For me, artificial ones will never replace them," he says.