Airbus shows off the sustainable and panoramic plane of 2050

14 June 11

Conceptual soothsayers at plane-builder Airbus have gazed 40 years into the future, to show what the aircraft cabin of 2050 might look like.

The first thing you'll notice is that the claustrophobic fuselage shell is gone, now replaced by panoramic views of the sky above you. This is achieved by a twisting bionic structure -- inspired by bird skeletons -- and a transparent membrane.

Instead of splitting passengers up by class, they'll be divided by the activities they want to engage in during the long haul trip. These personalised zones could become an interactive conference room with business partners on the ground, or a virtual reality golf course.

In another partition is the "vitalising zone", which has air enriched with vitamins and antioxidants, acupressure treatment and and smart chairs that can morph to fit your body shape.

Airbus reckons that an influx of female and older travellers ("the number of people over 60 years old will increase by more than three times by 2050," Airbus says) will create a demand for health and relaxation facilities.

The concept cabin would be environmentally friendly, too. Airbus says it pumps more than two billion Euros a year into environmentally beneficial technologies, which means the concept plane would be 100 percent recyclable. Sustainable plant fibres would be used to create self-cleaning materials and passengerbody heat would be harvested to power your VR golf game.

"Such technologies are already being developed," Airbus declares. "While they may not be seen in the exact same manner as in the Airbus Concept Plane and Cabin, some of them could feature in future Airbus aircraft programmes."

The concept will be shown off in all its glory with a 360 planetarium movie at Le Bourget International Airshow in Paris later this month.