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Airbus Patents Adjustable Seats, In-Seat Storage For Aircarft (consumerist.com) 103

Posted by BeauHD from the packed-like-sardines dept.
AmiMoJo writes: Airbus, a leading aircraft manufacturer, has recently applied for a pair of airplane seat patents that simultaneously look to increase customer comfort while stripping away what little room remains. The first patent is for a "Re-Configurable Passenger Bench Seat," which allows seat belts and arm rests to be moved to accommodate different size passengers (e.g. two large adults, or two small adults and two small children in a row). The second patent places a storage box under each seat, which is accessed by raising the seat cushion. Of course, this means there wouldn't be room for your feet under the seat in front of you.
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Airbus Patents Adjustable Seats, In-Seat Storage For Aircarft More

Airbus Patents Adjustable Seats, In-Seat Storage For Aircarft

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  • No room for feet (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    who needs them anyway in the age of segway and co? amputate your legs, and get robo-legs. Only wear them if required and you can get billed extra for your legs in your luggage.

    • Breakfast in Los Angeles. Lunch in New York. Luggage in Murmansk. Left leg in Paris (Tx) and right leg in Paris (France).

      What could possibly go wrong?

  • prior art? (Score:5, Funny)

    by pesho ( 843750 ) on Sunday February 28, 2016 @03:01PM (#51603985)
    From the drawings it looks like they patented the back seat of my car and some Ikea furniture.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Z00L00K ( 682162 )

      And who needs adjustable aicraft seats these days? The spacing between the seats is so tight that if someone leans back the seat the person behind will get crippled.

      • Yep. Last time I flew I had a nice shoving match with the person in front of me, culminating with actually having to talk to the stupid arrogant fuck. I don't like to talk to people who are any of those things, but someone who repeatedly smashes your knees with their seat without looking back to see what's happening after the first time needs to go out an airlock, let alone out the door of an airplane without a chute. Then they gave me dirty looks about it, as if I set the spacing of the seats or as if I we

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Z00L00K ( 682162 )

          Every air company packs people tighter and tighter, and if you have a problem with the average air company, don't fly Ryan Air.

          • Every air company packs people tighter and tighter, and if you have a problem with the average air company, don't fly Ryan Air.

            I certainly won't. This was a business flight to Vegas, but it was on one of the major airlines, though I forget which. These days I have a big luxo-barge with Recaros and I would rather just drive, thanks.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          Yep. Last time I flew I had a nice shoving match with the person in front of me, culminating with actually having to talk to the stupid arrogant fuck. I don't like to talk to people who are any of those things, but someone who repeatedly smashes your knees with their seat without looking back to see what's happening after the first time needs to go out an airlock, let alone out the door of an airplane without a chute. Then they gave me dirty looks about it, as if I set the spacing of the seats or as if I we

    • Actually there are even better drawings in the other crazy idea Airbus came up with: stacking passengers [consumerist.com].
  • Is that Tom Cruise, sitting next to John Stewart?

  • Fatties (Score:3)

    by Improv ( 2467 ) <pgunn01@gmail.com> on Sunday February 28, 2016 @03:19PM (#51604077) Homepage Journal

    I first read about this in another context, which was about making airplanes more comfortable for really fat people. Although I hate the random event of sitting next to a fat person and having them spill over into my space (and trying to force them not to do that), I hate more that my space could simply be reduced because some slider was scooted over for them.

    • Re:Fatties (Score:5, Interesting)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Sunday February 28, 2016 @03:30PM (#51604125) Homepage Journal

      In theory it should make things better for large passengers. Instead of buying two seats they could buy 1.5 seats, so two could sit together in a row normally seating three.

      Of course getting people to pay more because of size opens up a whole can of worms. Would tall people pay more for extra leg room, or small people get a discount?

      • Why not? You can already pay more for leg room if you want to. It's just called first class. Also they already limit the weight of luggage that can be brought on or charge you extra for taking more luggage.

        There have already been some airlines considering or implementing ticket prices based on weight [washingtonpost.com] since it adds to fuel costs, which are a moderate portion [wsj.com] of the flight's expenses. Just give everyone a base rate of weight between their person or luggage and adjust the cost based on the actual total weig

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          I think it would fall foul of discrimination laws in Europe and maybe the US. For example, someone with a medical condition that causes weight gain... The airlines aren't allowed to charge extra for wheelchairs or crutches or other essential medical equipment.

          In practical terms it would be impossible for the airline to investigate every single passenger to see if they had a genuine medical condition.

          • I think it would fall foul of discrimination laws in Europe and maybe the US. For example, someone with a medical condition that causes weight gain...

            They have already had that lawsuit in Canada and so now the airlines have to accommodate extremely obese people with extra seats due to human rights laws. I'm just waiting for a tall person to sue them for free access to exit row seats and then I'll be set...but apparently us tall people seem to be far less litigious although with the new long distance cabins Air Canada is introducing I expect the reduction in legroom those have might be the tipping point...

            • OK, I'll bite. Too.

              The fatties arguments mostly consider weight exclusively; Heavier people pay must pay more because they consume more. Sounds fair. But isn't quite.

              There is evidence that obesity may shield from depression. I maintain that obese people are more likely to contribute to good mood and harmony between people and that hence the world is a better place because of that. I admit that it's hard to quantify this but let's consider this as a truth anyway. Would it be fair to put a chagrin tax on

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by delt0r ( 999393 )
        Us tall people already *do* pay more for leg room. Most airlines these days will not let you pick the fire exit rows without paying extra.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          I'm a 6'1", pretty fit guy. On a recent flight it was physically impossible for me to sit on the window seat I had been assigned. I demonstrated to the stewardess that I'd have to half-stand with my arse half way up the backrest and my head smashed into the ceiling, or sit with my knees up at headrest height. My thighbones were simply longer than the space between one seat and the next.

          They bumped me up to business class, which was very nice of them, but not my point. I'm not freakishly tall; about 10% of m

      • Would tall people pay more for extra leg room

        They already do. They are called "exit row seats" or "economy plus". They typically charge between $10-$50 extra depending on the flight.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mjwx ( 966435 )

        Of course getting people to pay more because of size opens up a whole can of worms. Would tall people pay more for extra leg room, or small people get a discount?

        Sounds like you're unfamiliar with airlines. Would you like some help?

        If airlines were allowed to charge by the KG they will pick a stupidly low weight like 40 KG for adults (because our research indicates this is the optimum weight) and then charge per KG extra. Same will happen with any size measurement.

  • I have an idea for a third patent: Drill two holes in the storage box under the seat in front of you to make room for your feet.

  • Aircarft are indeed becoming more and more corwded.

  • Blame all the discount travel sites. Putting a plane in the air is expensive but nobody wants to shoulder that burden, instead they want discount flights where more and more people are packed in like cattle cars, every option costs more and more money and then people do nothing but complain about the quality of their flight or the service.
    • corporate travel makes it self-re-enforcing too. I only pay for maybe 1 out of 20 trips as personal travel, the rest is for work and the company travel system simply forbids all but the cheapest flights.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mjwx ( 966435 )
        Your sig is applicable here.

        However the race to the bottom seems to be mostly a US thing with some European airlines going out of business doing the same thing.

        If you fly with full service Asian airlines then air travel becomes a much better experience. I'd even list Virgin Australia and COPA as good airlines to fly long haul.

  • So essentially, if you have someone next to you who's eaten all the pies, you get a smaller seat?

    • So essentially, if you have someone next to you who's eaten all the pies, you get a smaller seat?

      No they solved that - they no longer serve food either.

  • Pets (Score:2)

    by jo7hs2 ( 884069 )
    This would also further limit (as have flight entertainment systems installed under the seats) the availability of in-cabin pet space.

  • Haven't been on an airplane in years and am having less and less desire to do it in the future.

  • I liked RyanAir's idea to put more cattle in the plane. Have people standing in the plane. At least I would be able to stretch my legs instead of having my legs in my neck.

  • The patent link is for "device for controlling the speed of a spaceplane during the transition from a phase of space flight to a phase of aeronautical flight and associated transition method".

  • they add the words "in an aircraft" to several old inventions. Yeah, real novel concept that.... </sarcasm>

  • Can these new storage areas double as flotation devices in case of an emergency, or will I have to pack an extra "Emergency Exit" arrow in there

  • What I can't understanding is how anything you kept inside your seat would be accessible in-flight. There isn't enough room *now* to stand up, extract a bag, pull something out of it...which you'd have to hold while trying to stuff the bag back into the bin.

    wg

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