Airbus, a French airplane manufacturer known for patenting plane ideas that simultaneously amaze and horrify, has a new idea to toss your way.
Envision this: benches on a plane.
Airbus is proposing that, instead of having three average-sized people complain about three different seats, two large people could complain about one long bench.
Or, alternatively, what if two adults and two scary-looking children – all wearing the same clothes – could share a bench hundreds of kilometres in the air?
(USPTO)
Their patent is for a "Re-Configurable Passenger Bench Seat," which could morph the number of available seats according to the needs of the passengers, and was published by the US Patent Office on Feb. 18.
Consumerist suggested that it's more likely that these benches wouldn't be used for the average flyer's convenience. More likely, it would be pitched to families who want to keep their seats together.
"We don't expect to see flight attendants going around making tweaks at customers' demand," wrote Consumerist's Chris Morran of the patent.
"Instead, this is likely being seen as something that airlines could use as an upsell: Want to fly in a row with your two young kids and your spouse? Fine, but that will be $X for seat customization."
Another possible use is to accommodate overweight passengers who are especially uncomfortable in airplane seats, or to better fit the needs of elderly or disabled individuals.
This idea is a slight improvement over the company's latest notable patents: Retractable bicycle seats (but on a plane) and a system that transports people in cabins designed like storage containers.
Since the 1970s, leg room (defined as "seat pitch") has decreased from 35 inches to 31 inches on average. The width of the seat itself hasn't fared much better, tightening up to 16.5 from 18, according to Forbes.
Meanwhile, an amendment that would have regulated the amount of leg room available per passenger failed to pass through Congress two weeks ago.
Steve Cohen, a Tennessee Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives, declared that poor leg room could prove to be worse than just providing discomfort to passengers.
"It is about safety and health. The FAA requires that planes be capable of evacuation in 90 seconds or less, but the FAA hasn't conducted emergency evacuation tests on airlines with a distance between rows of less than 29 inches," said Cohen, according to The Economist. "Some airlines fly with rows as close as 28 inches apart."
0 nhận xét:
Đăng nhận xét