Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

That is an awesome idea. I really hope someone runs with it.



This is a great example of a good idea that absolutely doesn’t depend on the technology at hand. In fact it might make it worse: in the middle of most flights you’re above the clouds. Any battle details would be infinitesimally small. And looking at the floor for extended periods of time would be very uncomfortable.

Why not take the same idea and just… show it on a screen?


I enjoy looking out windows and really like the in-flight views that many airlines have put into seat-back entertainment, but they're all just rendering aerial/satellite photos, not actually showing you. I'd love it if there were actual cameras on the planes that showed you exactly what was out the window (with some map overlay).

If you know your approximate position and have a good feeling for geography, you can see a lot. Coming back from Europe during daylight, I was able to see Lac Manicougan, the St Lawrence River, and eventually Lake Champlain (since it was a clear day, I actually saw more of it on that flight than I did when I drove across it a few years later, when it was foggy). I've identified highways from cruising altitude and used that to identify the larger towns/smaller cities we were passing. Flying to Europe at night, I've had a full view from Ireland to Amsterdam as we approached landfall.

All of those would be even better if I could have looked ahead and to both sides with actual cameras. I wouldn't want to spend a whole flight in a VR headset, but an hour or two would be great, especially since 1-2-1 has become the default seating in business class - I'm traveling with my wife and so we have to sit in the middle of the plane to be able to sit next to one another.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: