The future of the airplane will amaze and scare you. [Photos]

Airbus has unveiled concepts for a plane it hopes to build in forty years, but the aircraft giant’s plans aren’t going to impress those with a fear of flying.

The flight deck of this plane, which Airbus believes we could be flying around in by 2050, gives passengers a transparent panoramic view of the sky… and everything lying thousands of feet below.

And while at first glance this plane might look like it exists only to freak out aerophobes, there’s a bit more to it. The transparent walls will be made of an ‘intelligent membrane’ that changes according to light conditions, and holographic displays will allow passengers to view media or play games during their flight.

The transparent membrane will be plant-based, Airbus says. Organic aircraft does not have a great rap sheet in human literature thus far.

There’s an interesting sociopolitical statement made by the concept, as it abolishes the idea of separate business and economy cabins and instead has sections for passengers engaged in different activities. There are areas for relaxing, working and a bar for making friends.

If all this has you freaking out about inescapable views of a long, long plummet, don’t freak out just yet. Maybe, by the time this concept is built, we’ll have transporter technology instead — nothing to fear about being disassembled into millions of atomic pieces!

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