Interesting Airbus Patent - Flying Donut, Seating Style?

[bobbymike]

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/11/18/the-new-airplane-design-some-are-already-calling-flying-doughnut/

http://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/espacenet-airbus2.png

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/11/17/364708388/flying-donuts-airbus-files-patent-for-a-new-kind-of-plane

 

[Michel Van]

the idea of donut shaped pressure passengers cabin is interesting, if you use inside Blended wing body.
it wound reduce the structural stress by pressurization on traditional airliner. what lead to lighter aircraft

but like Airbus spokesman Justin Dubon declare in press statement:

“Some of these become the seed for other ideas with practical use,” he said, noting the company files more than 600 patents every year. ”There are some very clever people here that have fantastic ideas. And who knows? Maybe one day they will come to light.”

in other words: Airbus has no interest what so ever to build it...

 

[Jemiba]

I'm wondering about the acceleration forces, those passengers sitting somewhat oblique
would have to bear. And as a lot of pax would sit quite far away from the longitudinal
axis, the aircraft turning could be an interesting experience, too, I think. I would expect
the number of airsickness bags needed to rise sharply ! ???

 

[Grey Havoc]

As well as that, how crashworthy would the seating system actually be?

 

[TomS]

There's also the problem that legroom would vary from the inside to the outside of a row of seating. Either the inside end is unusable or the outside end is luxurious, all in the same seating section.

 

[cluttonfred]

I think this definitely the case of a company patenting anything and everything they can think of just in case it might be useful someday. In addition to the issues already mentioned, this arrangement would seem to require a separate pressurized compartment for the cockpit, joined by some sort of pressurized walkway for in-flight access.