Nervous flyers look away: No more windows for airline pilots

Not content with stealing from the Boeing 747 the title of world’s largest airliner, the Airbus 380 of the near future may be revolutionary for entirely new reasons; it’s pilots will no longer use windows.

Pilots already have the option to fly using only their instruments at night and in poor weather, and fully autonomous landings are possible at specially-equipped airports, but the patent applied for recently by Airbus describes a cockpit design that relies on cameras to project a virtual image of the world outside the aircraft. This digital view will have the ability to dramatically increase and enhance the information available to the pilot.

The removal of windows from an aircraft makes it stronger and more aerodynamic and means that the pilot need not be positioned in the aircarft's nose. The Airbus patent application makes reference to a pilot seated within the tail plane - a massive structure on the A380 that, at its tip, stands over 24 metres from the ground.

Nervous flyers need not worry unduly about the absence of a pilot’s windscreen, for even pilots themselves are now dispensable. Last year, a team of engineers flew a converted airliner 500 miles without the help of a human operator.