In reference to commercial aircraft ie: Boeing 700 series etc. Are there electrical wires running along the fuselage sides and under the windows where the passengers sit?
2 Answers
The wires run everywhere. Here is an example diagram from a 3D CAD - the yellow is the wiring. This is the A380, which has a total of ~500 km of wiring.
There is some wiring in the cabin, where the passengers sit.
However, most of the wires do not run through the sides of the passenger cabin. The preferred place to route them is under the floor and above the ceiling, in the plenum area, where it can be better organized.
Along the ceiling, you can see the wire harnesses:
Much of it comes together under the cabin and cockpit, in the avionics compartments, on the cargo deck level.
There are certainly a lot of wires in a commercial aircraft (many kilometres) and they are typically bundled into a number of wiring ‘harnesses’ or ‘looms’ that run throughout the aircraft. Many of these are above the passengers’ ceiling or down in the cargo area. There will doubtless be some wires that pass close to the windows. The layout will be chosen to keep critical systems separate, minimise cable length and avoid areas where the cables could be damaged.