Boeing plans to replace window shades on the 7E7 with photochromatic technology (Flight International, 18-24 November).
Oh, please! Digital control (complicated, electronic) instead of digital control (simple, finger-brain co-ordinated). What is the lifetime maintenance cost for physical window-shades?
I shudder at the note that transparency levels would be controllable by cabin staff "to reflect appropriate conditions". Appropriate conditions indeed, for the cabin crew. How simple it will be for cabin staff to keep the cattle quietly watching the movie or sleeping. No more bother from that unco-operative type who specifically chooses a window and enjoys watching the clouds and sky and earth and sea and sun and moon and aurora and lightning and farm and fishboat lights and the rest of the miraculous world. I want to enjoy the miracle of flight, not kill time in a darkened tube.
James Johnson JinShiTan, China
Source: Flight International
