DailyDirt: Unicorns, Santa, Comfortable Airline Seating...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Tue, Jul 29th 2014 5:00pm — Michael Ho

It's so easy to get frustrated waiting in an airplane, even though everything is amazing. At the same time, it's vindicating to see reports that airlines actually do have some of the least comfortable seating, literally by design. Here are just a few links on the future of airline seating that may or may not surprise you.

The Aircraft Interiors Expo demonstrated some new airline seat designs that could be both space-saving AND comfortable. One design makes things feel roomier by making the middle seat face the opposite way, but it's possible that some people wouldn't like the sensation of flying backwards for an entire flight. [url]
Airbus filed a patent for a particularly cruel form of torture that would maximize the number of passengers that can be crammed into a plane. The patent application has some illustrations that are painful to look at, but the application does state that these seats would be useful "more particularly on short-haul links, in order to maximize the return on the use of the aircraft" -- but one could easily see an airline extending the usage of this seat design if it proved acceptable to passengers. [url]
What if you didn't need to use your seat cushion as a flotation device? Maybe you'd like sitting on an ergonomic airline seat that looks like an Aeron chair with tensioned fabric over an adjustable framework. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: aeron chair, airlines, design, flotation device, middle seat, seating
Companies: airbus

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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jul 2014 @ 7:32pm

Back in the old days, you had the front seats in econ face backwards creating a small area where people would face each other (trains do this a lot) Family's and large parties loved this kind of setup since you could watch small kids etc.
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- Richard (profile), 30 Jul 2014 @ 3:35am
  
  Re:
  I faced backwards on my very first flight in a Trident - most of the seats were that way around (it is definitely safer in a crash). Later I flew on an experimental flight in a Nimrod (A converted Comet airliner which still had many of its airliner seats). The seats were arranged in 4's, each around a table as used to be standard on trains.
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Sheogorath (profile), 29 Jul 2014 @ 7:36pm

Errata
Airbus filed a patent for a particularly cruel form of torture that would maximize the number of passengers that can be crammed into a plane.
What if you didn't need to use your seat cushion as a flotation device?

The two links above both lead to the article about the ergonomic seats. I know because I had to view the source code of this page to get around the Barracuda block on shortened links.
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Ninja (profile), 30 Jul 2014 @ 3:00am

I'm big enough that my tight is long and my knees are pushed into the front seat the whole flight for some plane layouts. In that sense it could be somewhat better to me as the backs of the seats aren't solid. On the other hand the passenger in front of me may get out of the plane suffering from a severe crisis of "knees in the butt". At least for me it's going to be a "soft" experience.

No really, I hope that monstrosity never makes it into commercial airliners.
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michael, 30 Jul 2014 @ 11:56am

Has anyone in the history of commercial aviation actually used their seat as a flotation device?
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