莫麗·古德費勒

While not everyone will have pondered the subject while staring out of the window during a flight， the question as to why aeroplanes have circular windows rather than square ones is interesting.

Over the years， aerospace engineering has made huge leaps in aeroplane technology， meaning planes can carry more passengers and go faster. The planes have also changed shape to increase safety—including the windows.

In the 1950s， when jetliners were starting to become mainstream， the De Havilland Comet1 came into fashion. With a pressurised cabin， it was able to go higher and faster than other aircraft.

However， the plane had square windows and in 1953 two planes fell apart in the air， killing 56 people in total.

The reason for the crashes？ The windows.

Where there’s a corner， there’s a weak spot. Windows， having four corners， have four potential weak spots， making them likely to crash under stress—such as air pressure.

By curving the window， the stress that would eventually crack the window corner is distributed and the likelihood of it breaking is reduced.

在飛行過程中，許多人都喜歡眺望窗外，欣賞云海。但并非每個人都會思索這樣一個問題，那就是，為什么舷窗是圓形的而不是方形的。這個問題很有趣。

多年來，航空航天工程在飛機(jī)技術(shù)上已經(jīng)取得了長足的進(jìn)展，這意味著飛機(jī)不僅在搭載人數(shù)上有所增加，而且在飛行速度上也有所提高。同時，為了提高飛機(jī)的安全性，飛機(jī)在外形上也做出了相應(yīng)的改變。舷窗，便是變化之一。

20世紀(jì)50年代，噴氣式客機(jī)開始成為主流，德·哈維蘭“彗星”客機(jī)便是當(dāng)時的主要機(jī)型。增壓座艙的誕生，使得噴氣式飛機(jī)可以比其他飛機(jī)飛得更高更快。

然而，該機(jī)型舷窗是方形的，1953年，該機(jī)型兩架客機(jī)在空中解體墜毀，共造成56人死亡。

悲劇發(fā)生的原因是什么？答案是：舷窗。

哪里有拐角，哪里就有弱點。方形舷窗有四個角，就有著四個潛在的薄弱點，使它們很可能在大氣壓等壓力作用下破裂。

因此，讓窗緣線條彎曲，來分散窗口四角的壓力，從而大大降低了窗戶破碎的可能性。

（譯者單位：天津外國語大學(xué)濱海外事學(xué)院）