Salva Mubarak Senior Features Writer

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s probably the giant flying hotel with AI pilots and nuclear-powered engines from the future.

A viral video that has been doing the rounds of the Internet shows the giant, flying hotel concept by Tony Holmsten, which has been designed and animated by Hashem Al-Ghali.

Nuclear-Powered Flying Hotel

The video breaks down the many luxurious and futuristic amenities offered by the air hotel which is appropriately named Sky Cruise.

Aside from basic offerings like a gym and swimming pools, the 5,000 passengers-carrying Sky Cruise also promises a 360-degree view of the sky, an entertainment deck, a shopping mall, a sports center, restaurants, bars, a playground, a cinema hall, a wedding hall, and meeting halls should you choose the sky as a venue for your next Monday-morning meeting. The different floors are connected via external elevators that run outside the body of the aircraft and would, we presume, offer stunning views of the sky.

While there are no pilots to steer the airborne hotel (“All this technology and you still want pilots?” asked Al-Ghali when questioned about the absence of pilots), there will be plenty of staff to take care of the guests, according to the video. Al-Ghali also claims that the Sky Cruise wouldn’t be bothered by air turbulence as its AI-powered systems would detect any turbulence in the environment and send vibrations out to balance the shift in the air.

Powered by 20 nuclear propulsion engines, the fully autonomous Sky Cruise doesn’t need to land on earth and will remain airborne forever. So how would reach the hotel? By flying to it, of course. Much like how a large sea cruise works, you’d have to take smaller flights to reach the hotel to board it.

But is a giant, never-landing, air hotel feasible? The makers are optimistic that it is the “future of travel”, with a lot of people dubbing it the “new Titanic”, which could mean both a bad and good thing depending on whether they’re talking about the grand ship or its disastrous end.

The Sky Cruise presents both a bright and dark vision of the future. It certainly would bring about a revolution in the travel and hospitality industry, but it also seems like it would be accessible to only the rich and the affluent. There is also the environmental impact of such an energy-guzzling project to consider, along with the disastrous implications of the cruise ever crashing down to take into account.