Convertible Airliners
La DdC discovers the aviation of tomorrow and delivers her verdict: now that mankind has managed to fly, it is time to learn to enjoy the journey. Crestignac launches the convertible airliner.
La DdC1 min read
At Crestignac, the finest aeronautical engineers present their vision of the future of aviation to La DdC.
Alternative fuels, more efficient engines, new materials: the experts describe years of research.
The Duchess studies the prototype at length.
— And the roof?
An engineer hesitates.
— The roof, Your Grace?
— Yes. How does one open it?
— Your Grace… an airliner cannot be opened in flight.
La DdC looks at the aircraft, then at the engineers.
— So we have spent decades crossing the most beautiful landscapes in the world, shut inside a tube.
An expert attempts to point out a few constraints.
— At 10,000 metres, Your Grace, the temperature can approach −50 °C, and the cabin must be pressurised.
— I never suggested we should lower the roof indiscriminately.
Silence.
The decision is made.
Crestignac launches the Air Libre Crestignac programme: the first convertible airliner.
An upper section of the cabin opens so that travellers can at last enjoy the sky whenever atmospheric and sartorial conditions permit.
At the official unveiling, La DdC inspects the aircraft.
— Now that mankind has managed to fly, it ought to learn to enjoy the journey.
A few days later, the first experimental flight takes off.
On board, passengers discover a sky without a ceiling. The wind sweeps through the cabin. Scarves take flight. Champagne is served in coupes.
La DdC, utterly unruffled, contemplates the horizon.
— The world is more beautiful without a roof.
And so, at Crestignac, a new vision of air travel was born:
AIR LIBRE CRESTIGNAC — Live life with the top down.