[Bratch]

[Blood of Tyrants]

In the future airplanes with have a cockpit with only a man and a dog. The man’s job is to feed the dog and the dog’s job is to bite the man if he tries to touch anything.

[Carriage Hill]

We don't need no windows!

[PGR88]

How will they be able to see UFO’s?

[MUDDOG]

Next it’ll be airplanes don’t need pilots.

[tanknetter]

Charles Lindbergh crossed the atlantic in an aircraft with no forward visibility and only two small side windows.

[Chainmail]

I agree. I’d go even further: why have a human flight crew at all? Most of the current flight operations are done by computer. All the human pilots do is stand by for situations that may require an intervention. More often than not, the intervention is the wrong one.

[BillyBonebrake]

No Windows = No fun

[Nepeta]

Early in the design of Concorde, it was thought difficult/impossible to have flight deck windows, given extremes of temperatures, etc. Pilots would have nothing to do with the notion.

When all else fails, you need a human being. Recall the incident in Barcelona just a few days ago...

[tje]

I wonder how that would have worked out in Barcelona in the last week or so...

[Stat-boy]

Ha! Good post.

I wonder what Captain Sullenberger and the passengers on his plane would think about this idea?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Airways_Flight_1549

[grobdriver]

filed a patent application Dec. 23, published June 26, for a flight deck that relies mostly or entirely on electronic viewscreens

I wonder how many pilots are in on that opinion!

IIRC they didn't want to put windows in the Mercury space capsule, either - until the astronauts got involved.

[CrazyIvan]

And ocean liners no longer need lifeboats.

[Grampa Dave]

If we don’t need pilot windows in planes?

Do we need pilots in planes?

[Flick Lives]

Why not just build the fuselage skin out of transparent aluminum? The whole thing then becomes a window.

[camle]

what could possibly go wrong?

[Salgak]

No Windows ? Microsoft will NOT be happy about this. . .

[BlueStateRightist]

This negates the effect of the blinding reflective glare of the VAST arrays of solar panels that are to be installed across every square mile of the world.

[sickoflibs]

Because the avionics and flight control software will work flawlessly, maybe I will avoid those planes till the bugs are worked out.

[Jeff Chandler]

The heck with the pilots. How about cameras mounted around the plane, with video monitors for the passengers? I’d love to have a bird’s eye view when flying.