this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2024
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It was a joke.
But no, I don't believe it's controlled with a touch screen. Though it is "daring" shall we say... to make a plane with no cockpit windows.
It's really not, flying without looking out the window is very common especially for NASA and the USAF.
Absolutely, in fact it's not just nasa or military, almost everyone does that. You need to prove that you can fly without looking out the window to get your "instrument rating" and be legally allowed to fly at night. Every instrument flight rated pilot can do it (a majority of pilots). However, airports are lit up with lights, so even at night or in fog, you can see the runway as you're landing. If you have no windows, you can't do that, you'll need someone to guide you down.
That's not my concern, the issue is a lack of redundancy. If the computers crash or if the vehicle loses power your suddenly have no windows. From a design perspective, it's a risky choice. Not insurmountable, but it's a potential problem point. It's a choice that adds an additional critical single point of failure.
lack of redundancy is a concern, but the same was said for fly by wire cutting the physical link between stick and controls. fly by wire is ubiquitous now, can be made very very safe, and is a net gain for aviation in general.
not having a window is obviously a bigger challenge, but its still a solvable problem.
Yeah, I totally agree. I don't think this is an insurmountable challenge or anything, just a bold decision.