Probably not the first time this idea has been put forward in the real world, by putting seats where the cargo is normally carried. Engine noise, cost and passenger numbers have played their part in the trend for air travel.
This idea opens up concepts and conversions some borrowed from the real world, plus what a Whiffer can do.
The C-130 and the C-160 have both been used to carry passengers, so has the C-5 and C-141 but not with airliner seats.
Thinking out of the box the Guppy or Super Guppy or the modern equivalent. Then there's the An-124 or that
Boeing 747 which carries the Dreamliner fuselage in it's cargo hold which could carry more passengers than the Airbus 380.
I'm opting for the 1/144 or smaller scale although I have seen the prices on Ebay for the 1/72 Monogram Convair B-36 Peacemaker plummet to a price that I can afford and although there was the XC-90 , there wasn't a passenger airliner of the B-36 unless you use the prototype cockpit and paint it in Pam Am colours.
The list is vast to the whiffer, happy building your creations.
The Guppies would make pretty poor pax carriers as the upper bubble isn't pressurised, and it would cost a BOMB to do that for them. :(
Quote from: PR19_Kit on June 12, 2021, 09:11:58 AM
The Guppies would make pretty poor pax carriers as the upper bubble isn't pressurised, and it would cost a BOMB to do that for them. :(
They could always fly lower and take the scenic route 🤔
The C-5 already has pax seats on the upper deck behind the wing. No windows and they all face backwards. I rode from Hawaii to Thailand that way. What a long trip that was! Plus you climbed up a ladder from the cargo deck so you had to be up there before the cargo was loaded. Spirit airlines would have been better.
Shorts Belfast was proposed in a passenger version. 260 pax on two decks.
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/shorts-belfast.1290/ (https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/shorts-belfast.1290/)
Quote from: kerick on June 12, 2021, 10:02:28 AM
The C-5 already has pax seats on the upper deck behind the wing. No windows and they all face backwards. I rode from Hawaii to Thailand that way. What a long trip that was! Plus you climbed up a ladder from the cargo deck so you had to be up there before the cargo was loaded. Spirit airlines would have been better.
When Lockheed was developing the C-5, they were also looking into a civilian version as well, the L-500, IIRC. Juan Trippe, then President of Pan Am was looking at wither that or what became the 747
I wonder if anyone thought of putting an extra row of seats in the Blackburn Beverly as there's seats on the lower deck, seats on the upper deck but no seats in the middle. I have no idea of how loud those engines were but having flown on several C-130s a lot of soundproofing would be needed to make it acceptable for the paying customers.
They did plan that.
The Bev had a set of brackets half way up the hull sides forming a sort of mezzanine floor to take another deck. I don't think the RAF ever used the capability though, the Bev was far too useful hauling really hefty loads in that massive cargo hold!
And those four Centaurus were VERY load, specially up in the cockpit area! Maybe one reason why I wear two hearing aids now, the Bevs and the Rotodyne together being the main causes!
Another candidate should be the Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar, although Fairchild did provide various concepts of this aircraft even lengthened wings with four turboprop engines or two turbofaned engines. Fuselage stretches swing nose and rear door hinges which produced a few one off civilian versions but no airliners as such.
Unlike the Nord Nortlas.