Introducing, The Sky Whale!

[Cloud Surfer]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/21/travel/sky-whale-future-of-flying/index.html?hpt=hp_c4

(CNN) -- Give a designer and aviation geek some time and a pencil, and you might just get something great.

At the very least you'll get something spectacular.

Oscar Viñals, a Spanish designer and aviation enthusiast, has released details, and incredible pictures, of what he is calling the "greenest aircraft imaginable."

Inside the world's strangest-looking airplane

Equipped with self-repairing wings, large windows, a vertical takeoff ability and room for 755 passengers, the "AWWA Sky Whale" joins several other outlandish proposals for future aircraft that have cropped up in the last couple of years.

Airbus predicted we'd be flying in transparent planes by 2050, while pilotless planes and space flight have also been forecast .

Viñals' design uses hybrid engine technology and "active wings," among other things, to create a plane that, should it ever get built, will not only look great but will be one of the safest and most efficient planes in the sky.

The gallery above describes some of the features.

 

[Cptnchia]

My first questions are, What is 'active wing ' technology? How does it repair itself? Designers invariably create concepts and ideas that the engineers sometimes know is not yet doable.

 

[Dugie8]

Active wing probably refers to variable geometry in flight.

 

[A Life Aloft]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/21/travel/sky-whale-future-of-flying/index.html?hpt=hp_c4

http://forums.jetcareers.com/threads/introducing-the-sky-whale.192414/

 

[Cptnchia]

Active wing probably refers to variable geometry in flight.

Just wondering because in the article it says the wings can repair themselves in flight.

 

[Rocketman99]

I love when people who seem to know nothing about actual engineering or airports create "the plane of the future..."

 

[surreal1221]

I love when people who seem to know nothing about actual engineering or airports create "the plane of the future..."

It'll be the perfect addition to my virtual airline fleet. So excited.

 

[pete2800]

Imagine the power it would take to lift over 700 Americans into the air utilizing vertical thrust capabilities.

I'm not good at the Maths but how much thrust is needed to lift that airplane plus 800 people and their baggage VERTICALLY?

 

[Roger Roger]

It'll be the perfect addition to my virtual airline fleet. So excited.

make sure you post it all over the youtubes

 

[surreal1221]

make sure you post it all over the youtubes

For sure.

You want to watch me fly from Boston to Zurich, at real time speed, in my Level-D simulations 767?! I'll shoot a CAT III approach using auto land too!

 

[ComplexHiAv8r]

It'll be the perfect addition to my virtual airline fleet. So excited.

You hiring?