I’d be surprised to see sideways seating. Sitting sideways, especially with limited outside visibility & less than personalized climate control, contributes to motion sickness.
Yes, the military does it, but their primary passengers are healthy adults with no choice in airlines. And some of whom are planning on jumping out halfway through the flight!
And I love how the pictures show 2/3rds empty planes. I understand that you need to show the seats, but the “sideways seating” shot doesn’t even have the middle row installed! “Here’s a plane with increased capacity, and look: when operating at 33% of that increased capacity, it seems really roomy!”
What troubles me is that eventually they will introduce it to long haul flights. It is bad enough getting to the Northern Hemisphere from Australia as it is. Well getting anywhere really for that matter.
Re the double decker design: currently, if there’s an emergency, let’s say the plane catching on fire, I have the option of climbing over my seat should the person in the aisle seat move too slowly. I don’t want to lose that option. (Sorry, Grandma.)
The double decker design isn’t for the same planes as the sideways design.
The sideways design is from the Design Q company. Specifically for short flights with minimal business class space.
The double decker business class style is from Jacob Innovations company.
Totally different companies, solving a similar problem. The slide shows even mention “Jacob’s designs” and “Design Q” for the different slides. Close reading will reveal that these are different companies and different designs.
A typical office chair with headrest is in the 47-55" range (4-4.6ft). Having measured my husband sitting on a couch, I went with a foot-to-top-of-head height of 53", no headroom. To have two such seats stacked one above the other would require a floor-to-ceiling cabin height of at least 8 feet, probably 9.
The following is a list of max cabin heights for various aircraft. Keep in mind that these heights are at the centre of the aircraft’s cross-section; the ceiling height naturally decreases as you go away from the centre line towards the windows, since planes are somewhat circular/ovoid/significantly curved! One should also take into account the overhead bins, which on the CRJ900, for example, are 12" high.
A380: 2.41m =7.9ft
A320: 2.22m = 7.3ft
A330/340: 2.54m = 8.33ft
B737: 2.20m = 7.2ft
B757: 2.13m = 6.99ft
B747: 2.54m = 8.33ft
B767: 2.87m = 9.4ft
B777: 2.125m = 6.97ft
A350XWB and B787: numbers not readily available via Google
CRJ100/200/700 less than 1.89m, the max interior height of the CRJ900/1000
DASH8: 1.95m (I think for all versions; 100, 200, 300 and 400)
I suppose the double-decker arrangement could work for a B767, and very uncomfortably in a B747, for seats located at the centre line only.
Some have said the face-to-face seating would eliminate the beverage cart, but I wonder if they couldn’t rig something to run on tracks above the heads of the middle passengers.
Re: face-to-face seating. Oh *hell *no! It’s awkward enough on crowded subways when you don’t want to stare at someone for 10 minutes, and everyone ends up looking off to the side. No way would I want to be stuck face-to-face with a stranger for several hours!
If I were stoned, I would just notice the discomfort more, and it would bug me to a greater degree. A pot high makes me more aware - of everything - rather than causing me to forget about it. YMMV.
The article in this link is titled “For Airlines, a Delicate Balance Between Economics and Comfort”. I find that somewhat laughable, in that it’s clear economics will *always *win out… as evidenced by the following:
When any more innovations come along that will allow for either increased passenger comfort or more paying customers, there’s going to be little drama regarding which way that’ll go.
