Supersonic airfare is making a comeback. Spike Aerospace, an engineering and aviation firm eager to get their plane in the air, has launched a developmental proposal to have their very own supersonic jet into the air in 2018. The firm’s plan, to launch a 12-18 Mach 1.6-1.8 supersonic private jet-style aircraft into the sky, would fly from London to New York in just shy of four hours.

And just to prove just how serious their plan is, Spike Aerospace has already rendered their first findings of the jet’s “revolutionary” fuselage: A plane without windows. The Boston-based company’s argument is that the absence of windows promotes passenger relaxation as well as reduces in-flight exertion by ensuring “no more glaring sun and no more shades to pull down or push up.”

Beyond comfort, the lack of windows on the Mach 1.6-1.8 greatly reduces the weight of the aircraft, lessening the drag, travel time and fuel costs. In place of windows, Spike Aerospace has promised thin display screens that could show films, preloaded slideshows, calming images, panorama views or spreadsheets and work documents for in-flight work meetings. Windows would, however, stay in the cockpit.

An absence of windows could bring on a slew of potential problems such as airsickness, darkness if technology fails midflight and the increased risk of terrorist action, sabotage and human interference disrupting the transmission – and those in the air industry aren’t even convinced flightless fares are the future of travel.

The United Kingdom’s Boeing communications director, Matt Knowles, says that there’s a whole host of improvements to aircrafts coming in the next twenty years; but that doesn’t include a plan to go windowless. “We’re not looking at going windowless. The next aircrafts we release will be the 737 Max, out in 2017, and the 777 X, due out towards the start of the 2020s; both models will have windows. The development is interesting in theory but we follow demand from the airlines and the airlines respond to what their passengers want. We’ve found that passengers want windows.”

via The Telegraph