Passengers check in and are ushered into a long, slim lounge to take their seats and await the arrival of their airliner. The lounge in fact looks surprisingly similar to the interior of an airliner, with ten seats abreast, and windows running along each side. It is in fact a large pallet, already stocked with water, food & drink trolleys, newspapers, magazines, fresh blankets, pillows and cabin crew. The passengers luggage is being loaded underneath them in the pallet even as they take their seats.
The airliner they await lands, taxies to the terminal and hinges it's nose upward to allow the removal of the pallet of arriving passengers with it's full toilets, empty water tanks and depleted catering trolleys. The pallet slides out and docks with the airport terminal where the passengers are disembarked, to collect their luggage from a dedicated carousel at the pallet docking station whilst the pallet is serviced, cleaned and re-stocked.
The wings of the aircraft are quick-released and new wings, ready-fuelled, are attached, and systems checked.
The boarding passenger pallet is undocked from the terminal and loaded into the aircraft. The aircraft nose closes, the crew ensure all systems are in order and call for pushback and start, a mere 15 minutes after stopping at the terminal.
During flight the passenger pallet is pressurized, as is the separate cockpit area, to which there is no access from the pallet, eliminating possible interference with the flight crew. In the case of structural failure, fire or other emergency at altitude, the pallet may be ejected from the aircraft to descend (hopefully) safely by parachute, it's ERB's transmitting it's position during descent.
Upon arrival at their destination, the passenger pallet is again offloaded and within 15 minutes the aircraft with fresh crew is again calling for start, this time with a fully-laden cargo pallet aboard. No need for aircraft reconfiguration. But as the cargo mission is an extra long-haul one, the cargo pallet is a shortened version which allows an additional fuel pallet to be loaded after it, providing the aircraft with the extra range required.
Sometimes the route is flown in Kombi configuration, with a half-size passenger pallet being loaded together with a half-size cargo pallet, again requiring no aircraft reconfiguration...
The possibilities are fun!
Right, lets hear from the knockers...
