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Comment by xnx | Hacker News Reader

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xnx·

Blended wing body jets have a number of disadvantages:

* Low ratio of window seats may not be acceptable to passengers

* Passengers seated at the edges will experience greater positive and negative g-forces when rolling

* Don't fit well into existing airports for parking, jet bridges, etc.

* More difficult to design for pressurization than a tube

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This specific model of BWB, when overlayed with a 737/A320 seems to put the outer-most passengers at the approximate location of the nacelles on the narrow-body aircraft.

The nacelles on a 737 are BARELY wider than an A380. Is differential force an issue on the A380? It is one of the only models of commercial aircraft I have never flown on.

> * Low ratio of window seats may not be acceptable to passengers

Is that really a problem though? A lot of window passengers seem to close the window almost as soon as they get in their seat.

Sure isn't a problem on long-haul where the windows stay shut the whole time.

I am a window seat fan not because I can look out the window (although I generally do on ascent/descent) but because when I pass out in economy I don't end up resting my head on my seat mate's shoulder :)

Wasn't there some concept in airplane interior design to put displays in the walls so you could virtually display the outside like the aircraft wasn't even there?

To me the allure of the window seat has less to do with the window and more to do with what the window implies. I.e. it could just as well be called "the wall seat" and I'd get 95% the utility out of it.

Never really thought about how being far from the centerline would change how much/quickly you move in a roll, I can definitely see that feeling being unnerving, expecially the inevetable(though rare?) negative G moments.

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