Just when you thought flying couldn't get any less comfortable

[spinbaby]

It's the SADDLE SEAT!

The description from the article:

The new airplane seat, to be unveiled next week at the Aircraft Interiors Expo Americas conference in Long Beach, would give passengers an experience akin to riding horseback.

They'd sit at an angle with no more than 23 inches between their perch and the seat in front of them — a design that could appeal to low-cost airlines that have floated the idea of offering passengers standing-room tickets on short flights.




http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2010-09-10-airlinestanding10_ST_N.htm?se=yahoorefer

[geardaddy]

1. It's how they get more bodies

on a flight to justify the huge salaries "earned" by the CEOs.

[DJ13]

2. It wont be long

[Richardo]

3. ...or...

[brewens]

7. How about the "tight pack" used on slave ships? I just watched

Roots again not too long ago.

[gkhouston]

4. They're fucking nuts. Show us a picture of that model sitting in the back row.

Show us the side view. Betcha her knees touch the row in front of her. (As if I'm not close to that experience now and I'm not a unusually tall woman. I don't know how really tall men do it.)

[alphafemale]

23. From what I can tell, that design seems to intend for your legs to go Under the seat in front

This would be ridiculous on anything but the shortest flight. The entire row would have to extradite themselves if the person in the window seat needed to go to the bathroom.

[m00nbeam]

24. Or really tall women

Usually women's legs are a larger proportion of their height than men's legs.

[Jim__]

5. It's a seat that I'll never sit in. - n/t

[pnwmom]

6. And how many blood clots will those seats cause?

And how do you assume the "crash position" in those seats?

[OnlinePoker]

8. And what happens if you've got issues that you can't stand for long periods of time?

This thing looks like you have to use your leg muscles a lot to stay in place.

[Abq_Sarah]

9. The hell with that

Although I could go for the non-reclining seats on short flights.

[RamboLiberal]

14. Spirit Air is installing non-reclining seats

That's a sidebar story in OP

[grace0418]

18. I would so be on board with non-reclining seats. I'm ALWAYS stuck behind the person who

insists on having his or her seat in full recline the entire flight. It's gotten to be a joke with my husband and I. The entire section we're sitting might only have one person with their seat reclined and it will be the person in front of me.

[gophates]

10. They should just wrap everyone in saran and stack us like firewood.

Of course, if you don't bring your our Saran Wrap, it's an extra fifty bucks.

[Ruby the Liberal]

25. LOL!

Creative. :D

[customerserviceguy]

31. Saran Wrap?

The airlines would stuff you into one quart ziplock bags! Even the Bush administration wouldn't have sanctioned the torture that those seats look like.

[sinkingfeeling]

11. Sure as people get 'bigger', make the seats smaller and more compacted. Don't forget to charge more.

Same USAtoday has story on how obese people don't think they are.

[Vickers]

12. My nuts hurt just looking at that photo. n/t

[Ruby the Liberal]

26. Mine too

and I'm a female.

Ouch.

[RaleighNCDUer]

13. I notice the promo pic has the model sitting in the front row, not

squeezed into the second row.

[Cass]

15. Why not just have passengers stand up and if they need to sit down for a break they can

pay a fee to rent a seat by the minute. :sarcasm:

Those chairs look like bedside commode chairs or something. Can you imagine sitting in one of these contraptions for any length of time??

I loathe idiot business types who dream up ridiculous ideas like this just so they rake in a few more bucks. The airline execs who think this is such a great idea should have to use these absurd chairs as their desk chairs.

[naaman fletcher]

16. Standing room would be better than this.

Just have a bar and some TV's and I'd be totally cool with it for a few hours. It's the being stuck in those seats that is the worst.

[yellowcanine]

17. Wonderful. And I suppose this will allow them to add two more rows of first class seats.....

And maybe if they make the seats narrower and take a bit out of the aisle they can add one more seat per row and really rake in the fares. No more food carts - just have the flight attendants sashay down the aisles sideways with serving trays hanging around their necks.

[tanyev]

19. When did John Yoo start designing airline seats?

[TexasObserver]

20. All they need now is for Mr. Garrison to add one of those probes to the seat.

South Park reference.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

29. .

:spray:

[WinkyDink]

21. Just like in Port Authority, waiting for the bus!

[Ruby the Liberal]

22. Next you know they will replace seats with sticks bolted to the ground

and just anally impale us on them.

[MindPilot]

27. They don't look very safe.

Seems like that design would seriously hinder evacuation.

And from the article: "For flights anywhere from one to possibly even up to three hours ... this would be comfortable seating," he says. "The seat ... is like a saddle. Cowboys ride eight hours on their horses during the day and still feel comfortable in the saddle."

Obviously written by someone whose horseback experience is pretty much limited to watching it on TV.

[felix_numinous]

28. Design looks very unsafe for flying.

No way this stood up to turbulence, load bearing or crash tests...hard surfaces cause injury if you are slammed into them. Bad idea.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

30. I wouldn't worry about this too much -- FAA would never approve those seats.

They are obviously so flimsy that they'd break loose during even a minor accident. Airplane seats have to meet certain structural specifications to be approved for passenger airplanes, and I really doubt those would even come close. Maybe Ryanair could get away with them in the UK, but no airline here is going to be able to use them.

[ThatsMyBarack]

32. When I first saw this THING....

I thought it was either a sex-toy seat or an amusement-park ride!

[X_Digger]

33. Wouldn't work on any flight I've been on- head room.

I already have to hunch over to get to the middle or window seat, and I'm only 6'1.5". With the overhead bins as large as they are, not enough room.