I’m not afraid of heights but I sure do respect them. To some, being afraid of heights and vertigo are interchangeable descriptions, but for someone who suffers from vertigo when looking down from a height, I can tell you it has very little to do with some deep-seeded fear resulting from a childhood event and has a lot more to do with the reality that dizziness plus the edge of a 10-storey height do not make the best of friends.
Y’see, I love the concept of heights and the subsequent glorious views they offer. What I don’t like is when I get too close to the edge and feel like I’m going to fall over if I lean too far. For the most part this is overcome by having a sturdy and sufficiently tall rail in front of me; not so much for me to hold on to, but to logically appease the concern that vertigo-induced dizziness may send me a-tumbling. The maths is simple: any rail or support that is under half my height means my chances of toppling are greater and thus my vertigo increases accordingly.
So when I saw this news story today on the PopSci front page about an airbus concept that has see-through walls for a 360-degree passenger view, I was both awed and a wee bit daunted at the prospect. Sure, this airbus concept may never fully come to fruition, but I’m having visions of jumping in one of these planes and suffering from a lovely bout of perpetual vertigo for the entire length of the trip.
The same logical conundrum (read: fear) of driving I used to have also extended to flying in that I wasn’t comfortable with the lack of control over my ability to make it from point A to B. A lot of what helped with overcoming this fear of flying was being able to close window shutters and generally make myself believe that ‘seeing is believing’ and, if I didn’t have to think about how high above the ground I was, I’d be okay. The proposed see-through walls of the airbus would shatter this illusion for other such nervous passengers.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to get on a plane that has passengers feeling more nervous than they need to be. What do you all think?
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What a terrible idea! I’m totally comfortable with heights and planes and whatnot, so it’s not even that… it’s just that… well, I get nervous walking under or over any kind of glass panes, you know, like at the Aquarium, where the fish are all swimming around underneath you, or even a grate on the sidewalk makes me nervous - not that the plane will be made of glass or anything like that, but just the idea of seeing all that nothing around and under you would be a very nerve-wracking sight.
What’s more… people don’t fly for the sights, it’s purely an economical thing. A means of transport. Besides, there’s nothing to see but clouds, air, water and more air.
@ Muffin - I hadn’t even thought of the comparison to the feeling of discomfort at an aquarium. I too think all too much about how little is separating me from so much water (not to mention the occasional shark). It will be interesting to see if this idea gains any momentum.