Older Article - The detachable cabin, a good idea?

Note: This is an older article, written by me, that was posted on Aviationtelegraph.com. Unfortunately, due to inactivity, the website was removed from the Internet.

The detachable cabin, a good idea?

Recently, a Ukrainian inventor, Vladimir Tatarenko has developed a new concept: a cabin that can be detached in emergency situations. If the situation occurs that the plane is not recoverable, the pilot could detach the cabin from the rest of the fuselage. With parachutes and pads the cabin could land safely, even above water.

Tatarenko states that this is a solution to the errors in terms of human factors. Engineers all over the world are trying to optimize safety by improving systems. According to the Telegraph, Tatarenko believes that this concept could save many lives. This solution seems ideal for people who are afraid of flying. With this kind of plane, a fatal accident seems to be easily evaded. Also, according to his sources, people are willing to pay a higher fee for a higher safety.

But how much more should someone pay to fly with this type of aircraft? Because of all the extra systems in order to safely detach the cabin and the systems for the parachutes and pads the empty weight will increase. This means less payload and therefore higher costs. Composite materials and Kevlar will be used in the design to temper the increase in weight, but an increase in costs and fees is unavoidable. Certification of this concept will take long and will be very expensive.

The second question that comes to mind is the effectiveness of the concept. Is this the best solution for improving passengers’ safety? Traveling by air is known as one of the safest way to travel and over the years a decrease in accidents is visible. Over the last 10 years, only less than three percent of the fatal accidents are caused by failure of systems and power supply. (Source) Most of the recent accidents are caused by human factors, which the inventor wants to prevent with his design. But could the Germanwings crash and the accident with MH17 be prevented with this concept? The pilot needs to activate the system in the cockpit and in the case of the Germanwings crash this probably wouldn’t have happened. Last safety issue: this system only seems to be effective at high altitudes. So during the two most critical phases, take-off and landing, the system is useless.

So the best thing the industry could and probably would do, it sounds a bit harsh, is take these casualties for granted over the struggle to certify this concept. The industry works with very small profit margins and everything on minimizing costs, so this concept will be too expensive to be developed further. A casualty free world, in every industry, is a Utopia.