Airbus Looks to Add Metaverse Features to Air Travel

Air travel, while great, comes with its share of screaming babies, talkative neighbors, and cramped spaces, but what if you could add a bit of metaverse flair to the whole trip? 

That’s exactly what aerospace company Airbus is trying to do, according to an official company press release. They've teamed up with crowdsourcing technology platform HeroX to envision imaginative ways in which the metaverse could enhance the air travel experience. Yes, that likely means VR, or at least some form of augmented reality, while flying high in the actual sky. 

"Metaverse is an unknown world, and we'd like to understand how it can elevate our passengers' experience,” said Marc Fischer, SVP Cabin and Cargo Engineering, Airbus, in a press statement.

This is, obviously, still in its nascent stages. Neither company has figured out what sprinkling metaverse dust onto the air travel experience would actually look like. That’s why they’ve also created a contest to look for workable ideas.

The Metaverse and the Future of Flight competition will pay $30,000 to the participants with the best suggestions. The purse will be split up to five ways, should there be multiple winning ideas, and the contest is open to anyone aged 18 or older living anywhere in the world. 

The contest launches today, so get your ideas in there so we can add even more magic to the experience of *checks notes* traveling in the sky while sitting in a giant metal bird.