Airbus patents aircraft cabins shaped like doughnuts

Interesting from the FT [1]:<p><i>Airbus said although the design was worthwhile enough to protect with a patent — like about 6,000 other ideas its engineers devise every year — it was not an immediate prospect for shuttling passengers from Heathrow to JFK. “This is not something that’s currently under active development,” Airbus said.</i><p>[1] <a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/ba80c518-6492-11e4-b219-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=published_links%2Frss%2Fhome_uk%2Ffeed%2F%2Fproduct#axzz3JGVAqlXi" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ft.com&#x2F;intl&#x2F;cms&#x2F;s&#x2F;0&#x2F;ba80c518-6492-11e4-b219-00144...</a>

I imagine it&#x27;d be uncomfortable to be seated at an angle askew to the takeoff&#x2F;landing vector.

My bet is that airplanes will look just the same in 2070 as they did in 1970...

Any aeronautical engineers around who could give us the TL;DR of just why it&#x27;s a good idea to have a hole in the middle? To a layman (me) it would seem seriously destabilizing to have a hole that&#x27;s perpendicular to the direction of flight, esp. since a delta wing seems to pull off more or less the same shape without the hole.

Neat idea. Minor correction: This is a published patent application, not a patent. According to USPTO records, it published last month, but examination has not begun.

&gt; AIRCRAFT INCLUDING A PASSENGER CABIN EXTENDING AROUND A SPACE DEFINED OUTSIDE THE CABIN AND INSIDE THE AIRCRAFT<p>So then they&#x27;re not deck chairs on top of the plane? I&#x27;m not much up on plane design, but where exactly is &quot;outside the cabin, but inside the aircraft&quot; ?

Will there be windows in the doughnut hole?

Am I the only one here wondering why the layout of an airplane interior be something patentable?

Spaceplane?<p>This doughnut creates a neat lifting body design.

Airbus. That makes a lot more sense. I initially read that as Airbnb.