It looks like the design engineers have been working overtime over at Airbus lately.
Now, they've come up with an "innovative" detachable passenger compartment and according to some news sources, it's a "bold leap forward with new technology that will revolutionize the passenger and cargo airline industry". I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings to Airbus and these star-crossed news sources, but this concept is not even close to being new and the detachable cargo module never caught on, anyway.
The Fairchild XC-120 of late 40's vintage, was designed to have not only detachable cargo modules, but a variety of other modules were proposed, like rapid-deploy machine shops, triage or medical units, troop transport and even a field kitchen. Oh yeah, there was even a proposed passenger module for civil service.
There's also several helicopters now and in the past that have done this, one that comes to mind at the moment, is the Sikorsky S-64.
And I am wondering about this patent, because Fairchild designed and built a prototype, so I am wondering if the concept was ever patented?
Here's an article covering Airbus:
Airbus patents way to load passengers in airplanes - Tech Insider