Airline travel is "hurry up and wait". One reason is that some of the final stages depends on the airplane being present for luggage and paassenger loading.
What if passengers and their luggage could be pre-boarded into a cannister that includes the seats, overhead compartments, etc? On check-in, passenger can choose their seat inside the cannister, hear the pre-flight announcements, and order drinks.
When the airplane arrives, its nose opens up like a cargo transport. The loaded cannister is pulled out as a unit, and swapped with the next set of passengers during between-flight maintenance.
This would be rather like a railroad train that takes up or leaves behind different cars at different cities.
I agree
No opinion
I disagree
Add your comment
Why would the wait be less to load a cannister full of people than it would be to load the people one at a time? I have to guess that loading the cannister and battening the hatches would take as long if not longer. Also at the end of the flight, when I'm stressing to run to my next connection, I would be forced to wait while they move the cannister out of the plane.
Add to that the extra weight of the cannister and it'll be an easy bet that this one ain't gonna fly.
How about this ? Have several cannisters on each plane, each with its own parachute, and then drop them over their destinations. Would save the plane from having to land. Life insurance would be sold at the check-in counter.