Flying coach sucks — a fact that no quantity of overpriced Wi-Fi or hilariously tiny cans of Coke can change. So Airbus, one of the biggest manufacturers of commercial aircraft, is thinking about using VR to take you out of the experience entirely.
A patent filing from Airbus reveals a line of passengers wearing some form of VR headset, although it looks more hair-salon than Oculus Rift. The patent talks about “sensorial isolation”, which basically consists of a headset to pump video into your skull, noise-cancelling headphones to drown out the engines/screaming babies, and a smell-machine to substitute fresh roses for 15B’s BO. There’s also a nod to safety, with ‘miniature airbags’ included to try and dampen down the effects of turbulence.
Of course, there’s absolutely no guarantee that this’ll ever see the light of day: this is the same company that filed a patent a couple months ago for bicycle seats on planes instead of actual chairs. Still, VR could definitely make sense for planes — anything is better than those crummy 7-inch seat-back screens. [Ubergizmo]