Doughnut-shaped aircraft on the horizon

It may be the final step in taking the romance out of air travel. If a patent application filed by Airbus takes off, future passengers could disembark from today's sleek cylinders and fasten their seat belts in cabins shaped like giant doughnuts.

The revolutionary UFO-like shape addresses a key problem facing aircraft designers. Cylindrical shapes are good at containing the stresses of pressurised cabins, but huge pressures on the cylinder’s front and rear ends need to be managed with strong, heavy structures.

“The purpose of the invention is particularly to provide a simple, economic and efficient solution to these problems,” the application says.

Curved aisles

The “simple and efficient” solution, however, would involve passengers negotiating curved aisles and also learning an entirely new way of boarding: through steps leading up to doors arranged around the hole in the doughnut’s middle.

The application is one of a series of bizarre, futuristic ideas for which Airbus has recently filed patents. It has also sought legal protection for the idea of an economy-class seat for standing passengers shaped like a bicycle saddle, a virtual reality helmet for in-flight entertainment and, most alarmingly of all, a windowless cockpit. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2014