The idea of constructing a commercial aircraft without windows has been debated for a long time, with the obvious benefits of cheaper construction costs, enhanced speed of the aircraft, higher cruising altitudes and more efficient fuel burn. To date, the concept has never been realised in full however Emirates has introduced virtual windows in its first class cabins, as Tim Clark explained in a recent podcast on the airline’s in-flight entertainment system.
"You can save 50 percent of the weight of the aircraft if you remove the windows," he said. "On the outside there will appear to be no windows, but on the inside there will be a full display of windows. And we will use fiber-optic camera technology to beam in the images from the outside into those windows -- as we have done on the first-class suites.”
Although Clark states that the high definition are arguably better than the natural eye, he acknowledges the fact that some passengers would dislike the concept.