Journal articles on the topic 'Optimal shapes fuselage'

Considered in this paper is the problem of optimizing spar mass to minimize lift force loss for a set of spar cross‐section shapes in cases of constant and elliptical lift force distributions. The main idea is that the deformation of the spar under aerodynamic and gravitational forces causes a decrease in lift force and that there must be some optimal spar strength that gives a minimum for the sum of the loss of lift force and spar weight. The influence of fuselage location on the loss of lift force in the case of multi‐fuselage design is also investigated. The behaviour of lift loss as a function of the location of fuselages is discussed.

The paper represents the analysis intended to optimize the fuselage nose section with regard to aircraft aerodynamics in the process of development of an unmanned transport aircraft (UTA). The article deals with provisions of high aerodynamic efficiency that cannot be achieved without proper selection of the shape and optimal fuselage parameters that determine mutual interference of aircraft components and units. When analyzing the flow improvement around the fuselage nose in flight, three fuselage versions were considered listed further: 1) a prototype for testing automatic flight control systems with participation of pilots; 2) a nose symmetrical relative to the fuselage rocket type cylinder axis; 3) a supposedly optimal variant based on the results of previous calculations. The aerodynamic characteristics of 3D fuselage models for positive integer Reynolds numbers (full-scale model) were calculated using the ANSYS software package. Three computational grids were built for these models in ANSYS ICEM CFD. The given version of the fuselage nose section intended for testing automatic flight control systems with participation of pilots initially has the greatest resistance among the considered variants. That is, first variant of the fuselage nose gives substantial braking zone as well as significant flow acceleration zone exists in place where fuselage is transformed into cylindrical part. The variant with the nose section symmetrical relative to the rocket type cylinder axis has smaller braking zone and less dispersed flow in place where fuselage is transformed into cylindrical part and, therefore, it has lower resistance in comparison with the first version. The fuselage execution developed on the basis of the results of previous calculations, despite the extensive acceleration zone at the junction of the nose to the cylindrical part, has shown the least resistance, respectively, and is the best of the considered variants. This is also confirmed by a comparison of streamlines over the nose surface. The streamlines are given for calculations at angle of attack of 8°; at this angle of attack, the difference in the coefficient Cx is clearly visible.

Abstract Nowadays one of the main lines of development in aerial craft is the design and construction of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV’s). Within this wide topic, development of ultralight (UL) aircrafts is especially popular because of their versatility and relative low cost. My task was to design the shape of an airplane wing-fuselage junction, which will be classified as an ultralight and unmanned aerial vehicle. The most optimal wing-fuselage junction is made with the Ansys simulating program, including model calculations. Based on the calculations and results, solutions can be recommended. With CAD geometry models, first stage of testing of the aircraft with 3D printed models, is prepared.

In this paper, multi-bubble pressure cabin is proposed for the flat fuselage of blended-wing-body(BWB) autonomous underwater vehicle(AUV). It has strong compressive capacity and makes full use of the fuselage space. Radial basis function surrogate model and Kriging surrogate model are used to construct mixture surrogate model for higher accuracy. Two infill sampling methods are adopted:the candidate point sampling and the local optimal sampling. Multi-step optimization of multi-bubble pressure cabin is carried out including shape optimization and structure optimization. To optimize shape, the maximum displacement is selected as the objective function and the shape constraint is chosen as the constraint condition. The minimum structural quality is selected as the objective function, the maximum equivalent stress and bulking factor are chosen as the constraint condition to optimize structure. Finite element method(FEM) analysis is carried out to study the strength and stability performance of multi-bubble pressure cabin using the commercial computational structural mechanics code ANSYS.

Purpose The present paper aims to address the description of a numerical optimization procedure, based on mesh morphing, and its application for the improvement of the aerodynamic performance of an industrial glider which suffers of a large separation occurring in the wing–fuselage junction region at high incidence angles. Design/methodology/approach Shape variations were applied to the baseline configuration through a mesh morphing technique founded on the mathematical framework of radial basis functions (RBF). The aerodynamic solutions were obtained coupling an RANS code with the mesh morphing tool RBF Morph™. Two shape modifiers were set up to generate a parametric numerical model. An optimization procedure, based on a design of experiment sampling, was set up implementing the fully automated workflow within a high performance computing (HPC) environment. The optimal candidates maximizing the aerodynamic efficiency were identified by means of a cubic RBF response surface approach. Findings The separation was significantly reduced, modifying the local geometry of fuselage and fairing and maintaining the wing aerofoil unchanged. A relevant aerodynamic efficiency improvement was finally gained. Practical implications The developed procedure proved to be a very powerful and efficient tool in facing aerodynamic design problems. However, it might be computationally very expensive if a large number of design variables are adopted and, in those cases, the method can be suitably used only within the HPC environment. Originality/value Such an optimization study is part of an explorative set of analyses that focused on better addressing the numerical strategies to be used in the development of the EU FP7 Project RBF4AERO.

An over-the-wing-nacelle-mount airplane configuration is known to prevent the noise propagation from jet engines toward ground. However, the configuration is assumed to have low aerodynamic efficiency due to the aerodynamic interference effect between a wing and a nacelle. In this paper, aerodynamic design optimization is conducted to improve aerodynamic efficiency to be equivalent to conventional under-the-wing-nacelle-mount configuration. The nacelle and wing geometry are modified to achieve high lift-to-drag ratio, and the optimal geometry is compared with a conventional configuration. Pylon shape is also modified to reduce aerodynamic interference effect. The final wing-fuselage-nacelle model is compared with the DLR F6 model to discuss the potential of Over-the-Wing-Nacelle-Mount geometry for an environmental-friendly future aircraft.

The analysis of the find Optimal Structure of the Large Aircraft and Airship for decrease of Sound/Noise Pressure Level inside and outside the Cabin Saloon are very actually today for Worldwide Ecology Program. The Method of Aircraft layout from the virtual mass center is given, which allows us to obtain the Aircraft layout from the conditions of Infrastructural Constraints in the terminal configurations of the Modern Air Transportation Infrastructure and IATA/ICAO Regulation. A Method is proposed for the synthesis of new circuit solutions for an Aircraft passenger compartment and may be use to any Diridgables Projections future. A Geometrical representation of the concept of LHA with large passenger capacity made with a Drop-Shaped Fuselage in the Aerodynamic balancing Flying Wing Body Scheme is given.The new Body Plane LHA and Lighter-then-Air (LTA) Vehicles with cover of Solar Electro Systems will be more innovation projections for Worldwide Security Air Transportation with reduce Noise and CO Pollution Level.

Shape control is a critical task in the composite fuselage assembly process due to the dimensional variabilities of incoming fuselages. To realize fuselage shape adjustment, actuators are used to pull or push several points on a fuselage. Given a fixed number of actuators, the locations of actuators on a fuselage will impact on the effectiveness of shape control. Thus, it is important to determine the optimal placement of actuators in the fuselage shape control problem. In current practice, the actuators are placed with equal distance along the edge of a fuselage without considering its incoming dimensional shape. Such practice has two limitations: (1) it is non-optimal and (2) larger actuator forces may be applied for some locations than needed. This paper proposes an optimal actuator placement methodology for efficient composite fuselage shape control by developing a sparse learning model and corresponding parameter estimation algorithm. The case study shows that our proposed method achieves the optimal actuator placement for shape adjustments of the composite fuselage.

Analisis rancangan bulkhead dilakukan untuk memperoleh geometri terbaik untuk mencari berat yang efisien dengan mengubah geometri bentuk pada bulkhead yang merupakan sub system wing to fuselage untuk pesawat berkategori aerobatik dan berat yang optimal yang memenuhi persyaratan regulasi FAR 23 dan mengetahui respon distribusi tegangan, bending yang dihasilkan dan kriteria kegagalan struktur berdasarkan variasi geometri bentuk bulkhead. Pada penelitian ini untuk analisis statik bulkhead untuk pesawat berkategori aerobatik menggunakan material Aluminium Alloy 7075-T6 dan menggunakan metode pendekatan Schrenk untuk menghitung beban eksternal distrbusi gaya angkat pada sayap. Selain itu dilakukan proses optimisasi berat bulkhead berdasarkan metode pendekatan topologi yaitu perubahan geometri bentuk pada bulkhead untuk mereduksi berat, sudut insiden spar yang berbeda dan menghitung magin of safety. Proses penyelesaian masalah menggunakan perangkat lunak metode elemen hingga (Abaqus CAE). Optimisasi topologi pada part bulkhead sudut insidet 0° dan 4° menghasilkan volume yang berkurang pada benda sehingga mereduksi berat, tetapi nilai dari margin of safety MS = 0. The bulkhead design analysis was carried out to obtain the best geometry to find an efficient weight by changing the shape geometry of the bulkhead which is a sub-system of the wing to the fuselage for an aircraft categorized as aerobatics and an optimal weight that meets the requirements of FAR 23 regulations and sees the stress distribution response, the resulting bending and structural failure criteria based on the geometric variation of bulkhead shapes. In this study, to analyze the bulkhead static for an aerobatic category aircraft using Aluminum Alloy 7075-T6 material and using the Schrenk Approximation method to calculate the external distribution load of lift force on the wing. In addition, the optimization of bulkhead weight based on the topological approach method is to change the shape geometry of the bulkhead to reduce weight, in different spar incidents and calculate margin of safety. The problem solving process uses finite element method software (Abaqus CAE). Topological optimization of the bulkhead part with an incidence angle of 0 ° and 4 ° results in a reduced volume of the object so that it reduces weight, but the value of the margin of safety MS = 0.

Shape control of composite parts is vital for large-scale production and integration of composite materials in the aerospace industry. The current industry practice of shape control uses passive manual metrology. This has three major limitations: (i) low efficiency: it requires multiple trials and a longer time to achieve the desired shape during the assembly process; (ii) nonoptimal: it is challenging to reach optimal deviation reduction; and (iii) experience-dependent: highly skilled engineers are required during the assembly process. This paper describes an automated shape control system that can adjust composite parts to an optimal configuration in a manner that is highly effective and efficient. The objective is accomplished by (i) building a finite element analysis (FEA) platform, validated by experimental data; (ii) developing a surrogate model with consideration of actuator uncertainty, part uncertainty, modeling uncertainty, and unquantified uncertainty to achieve predictive performance and embedding the model into a feed-forward control algorithm; and (iii) conducting multivariable optimization to determine the optimal actions of actuators. We show that the surrogate model considering uncertainties (SMU) achieves satisfactory prediction performance and that the automated optimal shape control system can significantly reduce the assembly time with improved dimensional quality.

Helicopter engines are often mounted atop the fuselage to keep the aircraft footprint small and optimal for operations. As a result, hot gases produced by the engines may inadvertently impinge upon the tail boom or dissipate inefficiently that compromises on operation safety. In this study, a scaled fuselage model with a hot air blower was used to simulate hot exhaust gases. The velocity field immediately outside the exhaust port was measured through stereoscopic particle image velocimetry to capture the trajectory and flow behaviour of the gases. Two cases were considered: freestream to exhaust velocity ratios of 0 (no freestream velocity) and 0.46 (co-flowing free stream), respectively. The formation of a counter-rotating vortex pair was detected for both cases but were opposite in the rotational sense. For the case without freestream, the plume formed into a small “kidney” shape, before expanding and dissipating downstream. For the case with freestream, the plume formed into a slenderer and more elongated “reversed-C” shape as compared to the case without freestream. It also retained its shape further downstream and maintained its relative position. These observations on the trajectory and shape of plume provide basis to understanding the nature and interaction of the plume with its surroundings.

The increased use of optical measurement techniques in industrial environments has the potential to increase knowledge and creates an opportunity for a more comprehensive validation of computational predictions. In this paper, a quantitative validation methodology is applied to a 1 m × 1 m panel from an aircraft fuselage subject to compression and torsion, in order to evaluate the predicted response of the panel. A test matrix with four loading cases, namely pre-buckling and post-buckling compression with and without torsion, was used to demonstrate the capabilities of the validation methodology on the industrial component. The out-of-plane displacement fields were analysed with the aid of image decomposition and a validation process was successfully performed using a quantitative metric. The feature vectors, obtained through image decomposition, representing the surface curvature of the physical and virtual specimens were analysed to assess the similarity of the component’s overall curvature. Then, the feature vectors representing measured and predicted displacements for the four loading cases were used to analyse the deformed shapes and conduct a validation process for the simulation outcomes. The predictions of the deformation of the fuselage panel were found to have a high probability of representing the measured data.

The paper investigates a concept of an aerospace system based on air launch from subsonic twin-fuselage aircraft and on the rocket launch into orbit. We propose a scheme of aerospace system trajectory providing return to the starting point both of the carrier and the first rocket stage with liquid-fuel motors. A method for multidisciplinary calculation and optimization of the design parameters of the aerospace system and approximately optimal control of the motion of the system steps with different power units in all flight segments, as well as a feasibility study, was developed On the basis of the developed techno-economic analysis methodology, a complex of computational programs in C ++ was compiled to determine the main design parameters and characteristics. The comparative analysis of three versions of carrier aircraft and three fuel options at the first rocket stage was carried out. The analysis showed that compared to kerosene variant the hydrogen hypersonic booster made it possible to significantly increase the payload mass while the launching costs stayed the same. We compared engineering-and-economic performance of the aerospace system with “Soyuz-2.1” expendable launch vehicle. The comparison showed that the unit cost of aerospace system injection can be reduced significantly compared to an expendable carrier due to system reusability.

Integration of the Electronics modules in the rack system has been very challenging and critical in nature. The functionality of the electronics module is of prime importance for the operation on any system or subsystem. In many cases where these electronics systems housed in a rack system which in turn mounted in aircraft fuselage make functioning of the system more severe. This paper deals with design optimization of frame of rack structure in line with increasing demand of more robust and light structure with features of high stiffness and structural integrity. Aerospace industries employ topology , size and shape optimization technique and have reported significant structural performance gains as a result ,This report deals with the topology optimization of frame of rack structure has been performed using OptiStruct software. The main objective is to find the optimal topology of frame of the rack. The rack structure has undergone the first level of optimization, in other word it is called finite element analysis with inertia loading condition which presents the stress contour with varying stress level, the stress contour highlight the maximum and minimum stress level in the structure which gives the first level of information about the material requirement within the structure. Topology optimization being the part of the structural optimization is the extended domain of the structural analysis where optimum placement of the material in the design space is the prime focus. The design space is a geometrical space where material alteration is effected to achieve the design objective. Topology optimization problems utilize the firmest mathematical basis, to account for improved weight-to-stiffness ratio and perceived aesthetic appeal of specific structural forms, enabling the Solid Isotropic Material with Penalization (SIMP) technique. Structural topology optimization is a technique for finding the optimum number, location and shape of opening with in the given design space of the rack structure to the series of loads and the boundary conditions. A range of topology of rack frame is obtained by setting varying the target volume fraction and an optimum topology of the frame is selected by satisfying stress to weight ratio requirement and manufacturing constraint.

0. IntroductionIf we follow the line of much literature surrounding airports and urban mobility, the emphasis often falls on the fact that these spaces are designed to handle the mega-scale and super-human pace of mass transit. Airports have rightly been associated with velocity, as zones of rapid movement managed by enormous processing systems that guide bodies and things in transit (Pascoe; Pearman; Koolhaas; Gordon; Fuller & Harley). Yet this emphasis tends to ignore the spectrum of tempos and flows that are at play in airport terminals — from stillness to the much exalted hyper-rapidity of mobilized publics in the go-go world of commercial aviation.In this photo essay I'd like to pull a different thread and ask whether it's possible to think of aeromobility in terms of “uneven, differential mobility” (Bissell 280). What would it mean to consider waiting and stillness as forms of bodily engagement operating over a number of different scales and temporalities of movement and anticipation, without privileging speed over stillness? Instead of thinking mobility and stillness as diametrically opposed, can we instead conceive of them as occupying a number of different spatio-temporal registers in a dynamic range of mobility? The following is a provisional "visual ethnography" constructed from photographs of air terminal light boxes I have taken over the last five years (in Amsterdam, London, Chicago, Frankfurt, and Miami). Arranged into a "taxonomy of differentiality", each of these images comes from a slightly different angle, mode or directionality. Each view of these still images displayed in billboard-scale light-emitting devices suggests that there are multiple dimensions of visuality and bodily experience at play in these image-objects. The airport is characterized by an abundance of what appears to be empty space. This may be due to the sheer scale of mass transport, but it also arises from a system of active and non-active zones located throughout contemporary terminals. This photo series emphasises the "emptiness" of these overlooked left-over spaces that result from demands of circulation and construction.1. We Move the WorldTo many travellers, airport gate lounges and their surrounding facilities are loaded with a variety of contradictory associations and affects. Their open warehouse banality and hard industrial sterility tune our bodies to the vast technical and commercial systems that are imbricated through almost every aspect of contemporary everyday life.Here at the departure gate the traveller's body comes to a moment's rest. They are granted a short respite from the anxious routines of check in, body scans, security, information processing, passport scanning, itineraries, boarding procedures and wayfaring the terminal. The landside processing system deposits them at this penultimate point before final propulsion into the invisible airways that pipe them into their destination. We hear the broadcasting of boarding times, check-in times, name's of people that break them away from stillness, forcing people to move, to re-arrange themselves, or to hurry up. Along the way the passenger encounters a variety of techno-spatial experiences that sit at odds with the overriding discourse of velocity, speed and efficiency that lie at the centre of our social understanding of air travel. The airline's phantasmagorical projections of itself as guarantor and enabler of mass mobilities coincides uncomfortably with the passenger's own wish-fulfilment of escape and freedom.In this we can agree with the designer Bruce Mau when he suggests that these projection systems, comprised of "openings of every sort — in schedules, in urban space, on clothes, in events, on objects, in sightlines — are all inscribed with the logic of the market” (Mau 7). The advertising slogans and images everywhere communicate the dual concept that the aviation industry can deliver the world to us on time while simultaneously porting us to any part of the world still willing to accept Diners, VISA or American Express. At each point along the way these openings exhort us to stop, to wait in line, to sit still or to be patient. The weird geographies depicted by the light boxes appear like interpenetrating holes in space and time. These travel portals are strangely still, and only activated by the impending promise of movement.Be still and relax. Your destination is on its way. 2. Attentive AttentionAlongside the panoramic widescreen windows that frame the choreography of the tarmac and flight paths outside, appear luminous advertising light boxes. Snapped tightly to grid and locked into strategic sightlines and thoroughfares, these wall pieces are filled with a rotating menu of contemporary airport haiku and ersatz Swiss graphic design.Mechanically conditioned air pumped out of massive tubes creates the atmosphere for a very particular amalgam of daylight, tungsten, and fluorescent light waves. Low-oxygen-emitting indoor plants are no match for the diesel-powered plant rooms that maintain the constant flow of air to every nook and cranny of this massive processing machine. As Rem Koolhaas puts it, "air conditioning has launched the endless building. If architecture separates buildings, air conditioning unites them" (Koolhaas). In Koolhaas's lingo, these are complex "junkspaces" unifying, colliding and coalescing a number of different circulatory systems, temporalities and mobilities.Gillian Fuller reminds us there is a lot of stopping and going and stopping in the global circulatory system typified by air-terminal-space.From the packing of clothes in fixed containers to strapping your belt – tight and low – stillness and all its requisite activities, technologies and behaviours are fundamental to the ‘flow’ architectures that organize the motion of the globalizing multitudes of today (Fuller, "Store" 63). It is precisely this functional stillness organised around the protocols of store and forward that typifies digital systems, the packet switching of network cultures and the junkspace of airports alike.In these zones of transparency where everything is on view, the illuminated windows so proudly brought to us by J C Decaux flash forward to some idealized moment in the future. In this anticipatory moment, the passenger's every fantasy of in-flight service is attended to. The ultimate in attentiveness (think dimmed lights, soft pillows and comfy blankets), this still image is captured from an improbable future suspended behind the plywood and steel seating available in the moment —more reminiscent of park benches in public parks than the silver-service imagined for the discerning traveller.3. We Know ChicagoSelf-motion is itself a demonstration against the earth-binding weight of gravity. If we climb or fly, our defiance is greater (Appleyard 180).The commercial universe of phones, cameras, computer network software, financial instruments, and an array of fancy new gadgets floating in the middle of semi-forgotten transit spaces constitutes a singular interconnected commercial organism. The immense singularity of these claims to knowledge and power loom solemnly before us asserting their rights in the Esperanto of "exclusive rollover minutes", "nationwide long distance", "no roaming charges" and insider local knowledge. The connective tissue that joins one part of the terminal to a commercial centre in downtown Chicago is peeled away, revealing techno-veins and tendrils reaching to the sky. It's a graphic view that offers none of the spectacular openness and flights of fancy associated with the transit lounges located on the departure piers and satellites. Along these circulatory ribbons we experience the still photography and the designer's arrangement of type to attract the eye and lure the body. The blobby diagonals of the telco's logo blend seamlessly with the skyscraper's ribbons of steel, structural exoskeleton and wireless telecommunication cloud.In this plastinated anatomy, the various layers of commercially available techno-space stretch out before the traveller. Here we have no access to the two-way vistas made possible by the gigantic transparent tube structures of the contemporary air terminal. Waiting within the less travelled zones of the circulatory system we find ourselves suspended within the animating system itself. In these arteries and capillaries the flow is spread out and comes close to a halt in the figure of the graphic logo. We know Chicago is connected to us.In the digital logic of packet switching and network effects, there is no reason to privilege the go over the stop, the moving over the waiting. These light box portals do not mirror our bodies, almost at a complete standstill now. Instead they echo the commercial product world that they seek to transfuse us into. What emerges is a new kind of relational aesthetics that speaks to the complex corporeal, temporal, and architectural dimensions of stillness and movement in transit zones: like "a game, whose forms, patterns and functions develop and evolve according to periods and social contexts” (Bourriaud 11). 4. Machine in the CaféIs there a possible line of investigation suggested by the fact that sound waves become visible on the fuselage of jet planes just before they break the sound barrier? Does this suggest that the various human senses are translatable one into the other at various intensities (McLuhan 180)?Here, the technological imaginary contrasts itself with the techno alfresco dining area enclosed safely behind plate glass. Inside the cafes and bars, the best businesses in the world roll out their biggest guns to demonstrate the power, speed and scale of their network coverage (Remmele). The glass windows and light boxes "have the power to arrest a crowd around a commodity, corralling them in chic bars overlooking the runway as they wait for their call, but also guiding them where to go next" (Fuller, "Welcome" 164). The big bulbous plane sits plump in its hangar — no sound barriers broken here. It reassures us that our vehicle is somewhere there in the network, resting at its STOP before its GO. Peeking through the glass wall and sharing a meal with us, this interpenetrative transparency simultaneously joins and separates two planar dimensions — machinic perfection on one hand, organic growth and death on the other (Rowe and Slutsky; Fuller, "Welcome").Bruce Mau is typical in suggesting that the commanding problem of the twentieth century was speed, represented by the infamous image of a US Navy Hornet fighter breaking the sound barrier in a puff of smoke and cloud. It has worked its way into every aspect of the design experience, manufacturing, computation and transport.But speed masks more than it reveals. The most pressing problem facing designers and citizens alike is growth — from the unsustainable logic of infinite growth in GDP to the relentless application of Moore's Law to the digital networks and devices that define contemporary society in the first world. The shift of emphasis from speed to growth as a time-based event with breaking points and moments of rupture has generated new possibilities. "Growth is nonlinear and unpredictable ... Few of us are ready to admit that growth is constantly shadowed by its constitutive opposite, that is equal partners with death” (Mau 497).If speed in part represents a flight from death (Virilio), growth invokes its biological necessity. In his classic study of the persistence of the pastoral imagination in technological America, The Machine in the Garden, Leo Marx charted the urge to idealize rural environments at the advent of an urban industrialised America. The very idea of "the flight from the city" can be understood as a response to the onslaught of technological society and it's deathly shadow. Against the murderous capacity of technological society stood the pastoral ideal, "incorporated in a powerful metaphor of contradiction — a way of ordering meaning and value that clarifies our situation today" (Marx 4). 5. Windows at 35,000 FeetIf waiting and stillness are active forms of bodily engagement, we need to consider the different layers of motion and anticipation embedded in the apprehension of these luminous black-box windows. In The Virtual Window, Anne Friedberg notes that the Old Norse derivation of the word window “emphasizes the etymological root of the eye, open to the wind. The window aperture provides ventilation for the eye” (103).The virtual windows we are considering here evoke notions of view and shelter, open air and sealed protection, both separation from and connection to the outside. These windows to nowhere allow two distinct visual/spatial dimensions to interface, immediately making the visual field more complex and fragmented. Always simultaneously operating on at least two distinct fields, windows-within-windows provide a specialized mode of spatial and temporal navigation. As Gyorgy Kepes suggested in the 1940s, the transparency of windows "implies more than an optical characteristic; it implies a broader spatial order. Transparency means a simultaneous perception of different spatial locations" (Kepes 77).The first windows in the world were openings in walls, without glass and designed to allow air and light to fill the architectural structure. Shutters were fitted to control air flow, moderate light and to enclose the space completely. It was not until the emergence of glass technologies (especially in Holland, home of plate glass for the display of commercial products) that shielding and protection also allowed for unhindered views (by way of transparent glass). This gives rise to the thesis that windows are part of a longstanding architectural/technological system that moderates the dual functions of transparency and separation. With windows, multi-dimensional planes and temporalities can exist in the same time and space — hence a singular point of experience is layered with many other dimensions. Transparency and luminosity "ceases to be that which is perfectly clear and becomes instead that which is clearly ambiguous" (Rowe and Slutsky 45). The light box air-portals necessitate a constant fluctuation and remediation that is at once multi-planar, transparent and "hard to read". They are informatic.From holes in the wall to power lunch at 35,000 feet, windows shape the manner in which light, information, sights, smells, temperature and so on are modulated in society. "By allowing the outside in and the inside out, [they] enable cosmos and construction to innocently, transparently, converge" (Fuller, "Welcome" 163). Laptop, phone, PDA and light box point to the differential mobilities within a matrix that traverses multiple modes of transparency and separation, rest and flight, stillness and speed.6. Can You Feel It?Increasingly the whole world has come to smell alike: gasoline, detergents, plumbing, and junk foods coalesce into the catholic smog of our age (Illich 47).In these forlorn corners of mobile consumption, the dynamic of circulation simultaneously slows and opens out. The surfaces of inscription implore us to see them at precisely the moment we feel unseen, unguided and off-camera. Can you see it, can you feel it, can you imagine the unimaginable, all available to us on demand? Expectation and anticipation give us something to look forward to, but we're not sure we want what's on offer.Air travel radicalizes the separation of the air traveller from ground at one instance and from the atmosphere at another. Air, light, temperature and smell are all screened out or technologically created by the terminal plant and infrastructure. The closer the traveller moves towards stillness, the greater the engagement with senses that may have been ignored by the primacy of the visual in so much of this circulatory space. Smell, hunger, tiredness, cold and hardness cannot be screened out.In this sense, the airplanes we board are terminal extensions, flying air-conditioned towers or groundscrapers jet-propelled into highways of the air. Floating above the horizon, immersed in a set of logistically ordained trajectories and pressurized bubbles, we look out the window and don't see much at all. Whatever we do see, it's probably on the screen in front of us which disconnects us from one space-time-velocity at the same time that it plugs us into another set of relations. As Koolhaas says, junkspace is "held together not by structure, but by skin, like a bubble" (Koolhaas). In these distended bubbles, the traveler momentarily occupies an uncommon transit space where stillness is privileged and velocity is minimized. The traveler's body itself is "engaged in and enacting a whole kaleidoscope of different everyday practices and forms" during the course of this less-harried navigation (Bissell 282).7. Elevator MusicsThe imaginary wheel of the kaleidoscope spins to reveal a waiting body-double occupying the projected territory of what appears to be a fashionable Miami. She's just beyond our reach, but beside her lies a portal to another dimension of the terminal's vascular system.Elevators and the networks of shafts and vents that house them, are to our buildings like veins and arteries to the body — conduits that permeate and structure the spaces of our lives while still remaining separate from the fixity of the happenings around them (Garfinkel 175). The terminal space contains a number of apparent cul-de-sacs and escape routes. Though there's no background music piped in here, another soundtrack can be heard. The Muzak corporation may douse the interior of the elevator with its own proprietary aural cologne, but at this juncture the soundscape is more "open". This functional shifting of sound from figure to ground encourages peripheral hearing, providing "an illusion of distended time", sonically separated from the continuous hum of "generators, ventilation systems and low-frequency electrical lighting" (Lanza 43).There is another dimension to this acoustic realm: “The mobile ecouteur contracts the flows of information that are supposed to keep bodies usefully and efficiently moving around ... and that turn them into functions of information flows — the speedy courier, the networking executive on a mobile phone, the scanning eyes of the consumer” (Munster 18).An elevator is a grave says an old inspector's maxim, and according to others, a mechanism to cross from one world to another. Even the quintessential near death experience with its movement down a long illuminated tunnel, Garfinkel reminds us, “is not unlike the sensation of movement we experience, or imagine, in a long swift elevator ride” (Garfinkel 191).8. States of SuspensionThe suspended figure on the screen occupies an impossible pose in an impossible space: half falling, half resting, an anti-angel for today's weary air traveller. But it's the same impossible space revealed by the airport and bundled up in the experience of flight. After all, the dimension this figures exists in — witness the amount of activity in his suspension — is almost like a black hole with the surrounding universe collapsing into it. The figure is crammed into the light box uncomfortably like passengers in the plane, and yet occupies a position that does not exist in the Cartesian universe.We return to the glossy language of advertising, its promise of the external world of places and products delivered to us by the image and the network of travel. (Remmele) Here we can go beyond Virilio's vanishing point, that radical reversibility where inside and outside coincide. Since everybody has already reached their destination, for Virilio it has become completely pointless to leave: "the inertia that undermines your corporeity also undermines the GLOBAL and the LOCAL; but also, just as much, the MOBILE and the IMMOBILE” (Virilio 123; emphasis in original).In this clinical corner of stainless steel, glass bricks and exit signs hangs an animated suspension that articulates the convergence of a multitude of differentials in one image. 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