Hacker News Reader

Comment by idontwantthis | Hacker News Reader

Are those windows on top of the plane? Would seeing the empty sky above you be a good thing for passengers?

They are called skylights in buildings, I have to imagine being able to let in more natural light into the cabin, especially in a plane with such a wide body and corresponding distance between side windows is a generally good thing for humans.

I always thought you didn't want to do this because of UV exposure and heat reasons...

Plus occasionally the sun will shine straight into someone's head.

If only someone would invent electrochromic windows...

or manual pull shades.

this happens in regular aircraft all the time.

Both are blocked with any decent coating to block UV and IR

Surprisingly so! Humans really don't like being confined, and travel is stressful enough as it is...

One of the options for my senior design project (~5 years ago) was designing an artificial skylight for a hyperloop-style vehicle. Evacuated tubes make natural lighting difficult, and they'd already determined this was going to be a major hurdle for making the thing an attractive option for passenger transit. They wanted it to respond to the vehicles movements as well. Cool project!

> Would seeing the empty sky above you be a good thing for passengers?

I would imagine seeing the ground above you to be much worse for passengers...

Maybe a looping from times to times would reduce the fear of space above the passengers.

And it would make those warnings about your baggage maybe having moved in flight much more notable.

A proper loop will maintain constant positive G's. Wouldn't anticipate too much shifting. You wouldn't even need your seatbelt.

Although I can say from experience, walking around at 1.5 G is uncomfortable, 2 G is downright tricky.

...until all those people, who don't wear seatbelts while seated, end up falling to the ceiling and then falling to the floor.

Anything not held down - imagine all the laptops and electronic gear - flying around the cabin...

Except for the sociopath in B3 who gets off on all the screaming...

Definitely want them closed on long-hauls, but would be nice for light on domestic flights... Could also wear eye covers I guess.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com