This New Plane Wants To Lure Gen Z Into Private Jets By Replacing All Of Its Windows With Giant Screens

There is a new plane in development that hopes to be the future of aviation. The Otto Aerospace Phantom 3500 promises to cut business jet fuel burn by 60 percent and make aviation more accessible than ever. One way the startup company wants to achieve this is by deleting all of the windows of its new plane and replacing them with gigantic screens. Apparently, this is also supposed to get Gen Z into private jet travel. This plane is supposed to make its first flight in only two years, so let’s talk about what in the world is going on here.

The world of aviation is on a relentless pursuit to gain efficiency. A more efficient aircraft can burn less fuel, be cleaner for the environment, and, perhaps most importantly for operators, be cheaper to run. Over the past several years, we’ve seen fantastic advancements in turbofan engine technology and efficiency, the increased use of composites to cut down on weight, and an industry-wide obsession with aerodynamics. Airlines, fractional operators, and everyone else are always looking for the next big thing in aviation.

So the Otto Aerospace Phantom 3500 is pretty much like catnip. This plane is promising greater range, a much lower fuel burn, much better aerodynamics, and higher marketability than business jets of similar size. Yet, Otto Aerospace is not some crazy idea by some guys in Silicon Valley, but a serious venture with some big names attached to it. Flexjet, a specialist in fractional private jet ownership, just placed an order for 300 Phantom 3500 business jets, a deal that could be worth $5.85 billion based on the estimated selling price of the aircraft. The Phantom 3500 has been all over the news and social media, even publications that don’t normally report on planes.

But what’s the big deal here? What’s so exciting about this plane?

Extreme Aero

Otto Aerospace was founded in 2008 by William ‘Bill’ Otto, who wanted to reinvent air travel. The company explains William’s story:

Frustrated with the inconvenience of commercial air transportation, high private air travel costs and the environmental impact, Bill led the successful development of Celera subscale models and Celera 500L—a full-size technology demonstrator aircraft.

Bill’s unconventional approach to problem-solving gave rise in 1974 to Otto Laboratories, Inc., which became one of the most recognized accident reconstruction firms in the world. While serving as founder and president of the Laboratories, he traveled more than two million miles to various accident sites throughout the world. Bill’s extensive travel brought air transportation problems to light, and so began the Otto Celera journey.

Talking to aviation publication FlightGlobal, Otto said that his company’s goal was to build a private plane that could fly nonstop between any two cities in the United States and do so with a speed and cost comparable to flying commercial. That mission of making private flight as accessible as commercial travel remains today.

Before developing the Celera, Otto was a scientist at the Los Alamos Scientific Labs, where he worked on nuclear weapons and torpedoes. At another time in his career, he worked for North American Aviation, where he led development of the Minuteman missile guidance system.

His aircraft, the Celera 500L (above), made huge promises. One of them was that the Celera 500L would have 59 percent less drag than a typical aircraft of similar size. Why? Because the aircraft is said to take advantage of full laminar flow. I’ll let aviation education website Boldmethod explain:

Air, believe it or not, is sticky. Really, it’s viscous – as it flows over the surface of your wing, it slows down due to friction. In fact, immediately above the surface of your wing, the air isn’t moving at all. Imagine you’re flying at 100 knots in your Piper Cherokee. The air flows around your wing at around 100 knots – or somewhat faster due to your airfoil. However, if you measure the airspeed within an inch of the wing’s surface, you’ll find that the airflow slows down. As you reach the surface of your wing, the airflow’s speed drops to zero. The area where friction slows down the airflow is called the boundary layer.

The boundary layer isn’t very deep, maybe .02 to an inch thick, but it’s important. It’s the source of skin friction drag, and can actually decrease pressure drag.

Air flowing in the boundary layer travels in one of two states: laminar flow and turbulent flow. In laminar flow, the air flows smoothly across a surface and the streamlines move parallel to each other. A lamanar-flow boundary layer is very thin – possibly only .02 inches thick. As you move up and away from a surface, the airflow’s speed smoothly increases in a laminar flow boundary layer until it reaches free-stream speed.

Achieving perfect laminar flow is often considered to be one of the holy grails of aviation. NASA points out that scientists were even researching laminar flow in the 1930s. Achieving full laminar flow is, as you’ve probably guessed by now, extraordinarily difficult. Planes are full of little bits and pieces all over that create turbulent airflow. Screws, rivets, and even joints in panels cause turbulence. Windows, doors, hatches, and external equipment also cause turbulence, too. Oh, and surface imperfections also cause disturbances, too.

This is a major reason why the Celera 500L, and now the Phantom 3500, have absolutely no windows aside from the flight deck. To Otto Aerospace, adding windows will mean unnecessary weight and drag. It’s also why both of these aircraft have a unique teardrop shape.

Anyway, Otto Aerospace began construction of the Celera 500L in 2015, and the aircraft’s aerodynamic prototype made its first flight in 2018. The aircraft was powered by a Red Aircraft A03 550 HP V12 engine and was pitched as having a range of 4,500 nautical miles. It was supposed to enter production in 2024 or 2025, but Otto Aerospace has since decided to evolve the Celera further, making the Phantom 3500.

Today, the Fort Worth, Texas-based Otto Aerospace says it’s “guided by former leaders from Boeing, Textron, General Dynamics, Lockheed, and more.” One figure who is featured in Otto’s press kit is Dennis Muilenburg, the now-former CEO of Boeing, who was ousted during the 737 Max scandal. Now, he’s the chairman of Otto Aerospace. William Otto is a board member.

That brings us to the plane that these folks are trying to put into the sky really soon.

The Phantom

The Otto Aerospace Phantom 3500 starts off as a full composite airframe, which takes advantage of Otto Aerospace’s latest laminar flow research. The company says that, based on wind tunnel testing that was carried out in 2024, the new airframe cuts drag by 35 percent compared to a typical business jet of similar size.

That fuselage will be built by Leonardo S.p.A. in Italy. The landing gear will also be built in Italy by Mecaer Aviation. The proposed spec sheet says that the Phantom 3500 will have a cabin with 6’5″ of headroom, a maximum range of 3,500 nautical miles, a cruising altitude of 51,000 feet, and a balanced field takeoff run of 3,500 feet. Power is said to come from a pair of Williams International FJ44-4 QPM turbofan engines, which punch out 3,621 pounds of thrust during takeoff. Loaded, the aircraft is projected to come in at under the Federal Aviation Regulation Part 23 maximum takeoff weight limit of 19,000 pounds.

Otto Aerospace claims that the aircraft is being designed around what it calls a “Virtuous Cycle,” basically, a chain reaction of one thing that leads to other things. Otto claims that its super slippery fuselage and wing design lowers drag by 35 percent, which means that the airplane doesn’t need to burn as much fuel to go the same distance as the competition. In turn, Otto says, this means that the plane can carry a smaller fuel load, use smaller engines, and have a smaller structure.

This then continues, Otto says, because their smaller all-composite airframe has fewer materials, which should bring down manufacturing costs, reduce labor, and speed up production. Otto then says that all of this adds up to a plane that should have decent performance even with its smaller engines, and the company claims it’ll be able to climb to 51,000 feet in 28 minutes directly from takeoff. Add it all up, Otto says, and you get a plane that reduces fuel burn by 60 percent and is 50 percent cheaper to operate than a typical super-midsize business jet.

Of course, all of this is theoretical because Otto has not built a single operational Phantom 3500 yet. Honestly, the proposed specs and the promises aren’t really going to amaze me until one of these planes is in the sky and proving itself.

About Those “Windows”

But what is stopping me in my tracks are the windows that the up to nine passengers are supposed to “look out” of, or the lack thereof. At first, Otto said that its plane doesn’t have windows because that’s what it needed to do to achieve its claimed huge drag reduction. Now, the company is taking a different and weird tack. The company’s latest media kit says this:

The Phantom will also debut the world’s first ultra-wide passenger windows, spanning an unprecedented 72 inches wide, thanks to its proprietary SuperNatural Vision (SNV) technology. SNV reveals a glare-free, color-enhanced, panoramic view of the curvature of Earth in stunning clarity from its cruise altitude of 51,000 feet. The windows are lighter, quieter, safer, and more energy efficient, offering a passenger experience unlike anything seen in flight before.

This is a little weird. In my eyes, the plane cannot have “the world’s first ultra-wide passenger windows” as they aren’t windows, but giant screens displaying a video feed from the plane’s exterior cameras. Screens instead of windows also add some weird quirks. Are these 3D screens? Because if not, the person trying to look out of the giant digital window screen that’s just a handful of inches from their face might see a distorted image. Look at your phone screen at an angle and you’ll see what I mean.

Also, as Jason Torchinsky helpfully pointed out in the past, digital windows and mirrors suck for people who don’t have perfect vision. Remember, you’re looking at a video feed on a flat panel; you’re not looking at what’s actually happening outside. Imagine having to put on your glasses just to see “outside” of the aircraft or to watch CNN:

Otto Aerospace also says that it plans to apply its technology to a longer-range version of the Phantom, and maybe later to a future regional airliner. That brings a whole new set of questions. If this regional airliner has no windows like the Phantom business jet, how are the displays going to work with the cabin crew?

Have you ever been on a flight and wondered why the flight attendants might have asked the passengers to keep their window shades open during the takeoff and landing rolls? There’s a reason for it. Having open shades allows the cabin crew to monitor the aircraft’s surroundings. This can help during an emergency. For example, the cabin crew can look out of the windows and see if the aircraft is on fire or if the exits are blocked.

Likewise, having open window shades helps your eyes adjust to the outside and gives you situational awareness. The next time you’re on a flight and have your shade for the whole ride, open it after the plane lands. You might be amazed that it takes a moment for your eyes to adjust to either the brightness or darkness outside of the aircraft.

It’s unclear how removing windows for displays will change that. Will the cameras and displays remain working in an emergency? Also unclear is how the windows will be for people who get motion sick from looking at screens in moving vehicles.

The Gen Z Jet?

It somehow gets deeper from there, because, as a Wall Street Journal exclusive reported:

[Flexjet and Otto Aerospace] said the digitized windows will be compelling to consumers, especially Gen Z travelers who are more technologically savvy.

More specifically, the Phantom 3500 is supposed to get wealthy Gen Z into private jets. It is an interesting marketing strategy and one that I could sort of see working. Though I have to wonder if the Gen Z traveler won’t just ignore the giant screen windows and use their phone. But, of course, the biggest hurdle is that Otto has to get one of these flying. For that, the company says, we’ll have to wait until at least 2027. If all goes well, the company says, it hopes to have these things in service in 2030.

Assuming Otto can put this plane into production and assuming it will be anywhere near what’s being claimed, I like a lot of what’s happening here. Otto’s work reminds me of some of the craziest ideas pitched by Burt Rutan. A lighter, more aerodynamic aircraft that burns less fuel is good. But, admittedly, I am not sold on the idea of not having any windows to look out of. I might be okay with a digital speedometer, but nothing beats looking out of a real airplane window at the world below.

So, that leaves us with a bunch of questions. Is this the future of aviation? Will Gen Z fall in love with a plane of screens? Will the screens be as neat as they look in the renders? Those are questions that we’ll have to wait until 2027 for answers. You bet I’ll be watching this one.

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