While there have been some hiccups with international flying, the U.S. is finally making strides upgrading their airliners. Year after year Asia-based airlines, such as Singapore and Cathay Pacific Airways, are at the forefront of luxury air travel, putting the Business and First Class on U.S.-based airlines to shame. In fact, in the year 2015, a U.S.-based airline didn’t even break the Top 25 of the World’s Top 100 Airlines List. However, with America at the head of most technological advances, it only seems fitting that our next wave of development be in Travel.
1. Faster than the Speed of Sound
After the failure of Concorde in 2003, the idea of supersonic flights has been put to rest, until now. NASA announced earlier this year that it will be spending 3.9m GBP funding research into finding a greener and quieter alternative to the Concorde. Airbus is also backing a project for the world’s first supersonic business jet, which will make the flight from New York to London in under an hour. Testing will begin in the next 5 years if all goes according to plan and it’s predicted speed will be just under twice the speed of sound, or 1,300 mph.
2. App Obsession
Airlines are quickly rolling out new apps for airport navigation and flight management. American Airlines recently adopted Apple’s Core Location Technology to help navigate you and utilize your down time in airports. Which will be majorly helpful when International Airports start building more luxury lodging options across different terminals, such as Helsinki has done with their special sleeping pods. If you’re like me, and would rather starve than eat some airplane food, AirGrub has come up with the perfect app to help you find the top restaurants in each terminal and meals to-go or eat-in.
3. Bye Bye Personal Tv’s
Airbus recently filed a patent to introduce virtual reality helmets into airplanes, instead of personal tv’s or group screenings where you’re constantly fiddling with the earphones and trying not to make eye contact with the stranger sitting next to you. The application suggests the helmets could offer “sound, vision or olfactory (related to smell) isolation” from the rest of the aircraft cabin. Hooray for technology!
4. Seat Solutions
With travel at an all-time high, crowded flights where you’re fighting over the armrest aren’t going away anytime soon. However, airlines are trying to maximize space and also increase your comfort level, if ever so slightly. Airbus’ next patent would be a seat layout that would stack people in a split-level, mezzanine-style. Airbus also plans on softening the rigid division between First, Business, and Economy by introducing a morphing material into the seats, the more you pay the more comfortable the seat.
5. See The World Outside From Your Seat
In 2014 Airbus filed another patent for an “interactive cabin window system” instead of 1-2 small oblong windows in each row. The display screen would bring up information and pictures of what you are passing outside, including historical information and world marvels. Imagine being able to watch the sunrise on the ceiling, even though it is still daytime outside, to help your body adjust to the new time zone it has just reached. The seat automatically readjusts itself to a sitting position to gently wake you up and the sunrise turns into a skyline of Manhattan. Welcome to flying in 2050.
