Rather than dealing with all that hassle of unloading and reloading passengers and baggage, Airbus simply splits the plane in two: a passenger/baggage compartment, and then the main part of the aircraft that does the flying. Passengers wouldn’t board the plane itself, but instead would be loaded into a separate “cabin module” in the departure lounge.
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The idea is created to speed up the boarding process by allowing ticket-holders to take their seats before their plane is ready and in position at the airport’s gate. Airbus might have a way to cut that idle time to near zero, though: it recently received a patent for a detachable passenger cabin that would lift into the airport gate.
It would mean passengers would board a cabin which would then be placed on a plane similar to how shipping containers are transported.
In the patent application, Airbus state: “Transferring a payload in a commercial aeroplane requires that the aeroplane is immobilised on the ground”.
“In addition settling passengers in their respective seats in the aeroplane may lengthen the plane’s period of immobilisation”.
According to Airbus’ document, long waiting times not only cost more, but increase flight times and fuel consumption.
Rival Boeing has previously stated that cutting down an airplane’s turnaround time by 10 minutes improve its utilisation level by 8.1pc.
The patent for the modules, filed by Airbus in February 2013, was approved on Tuesday by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The aircraft manufacturer also believes its proposal – dubbed the “aircraft pod concept” will allow planes to be modified quickly and easily.
Airbus has been coming up with a lot of ideas lately to make air travel more efficient.
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The patent also includes drawings of the docking stations and transport equipment needed to shuttle the cabin containers.
