A Travel and vacations forum. TravelBanter

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » TravelBanter forum » Travelling Style » Air travel
Site Map Home Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Please, Don't Let This Be the Future of Air Travel - sitting 23" apart



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old September 20th, 2010, 07:17 PM posted to rec.travel.air
Ablang
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 123
Default Please, Don't Let This Be the Future of Air Travel - sitting 23" apart

Please, Don't Let This Be the Future of Air Travel
Slouching toward JFK
By Rebecca Boyle Posted 09.10.2010 at 5:00 pm

On your last flight, did you stare with envy at the people sitting in
the exit row? Did you get a charley horse from trying to cross your
legs under your tray table? Consider yourself lucky, pal. Your next
budget flight might ask you to fly horseback style, squeezed onto a
saddle in just 23 inches of space.

This new airplane seat will be officially unveiled at a trade show
next week, and the early buzz is that several airlines are interested,
including some in the U.S. The thought makes us cringe — which, come
to think of it, we will be required to do in order to fit into these
seats.

The “SkyRider” is the latest innovation designed to save airlines
money and, apparently, make passengers miserable. It is supposed to
mimic the experience of riding horseback: “Cowboys ride eight hours on
their horses during the day and still feel comfortable in the saddle,”
says Dominique Menoud, director general of Aviointeriors Group, which
will make the seats. Some cowboys might say otherwise, but there’s a
larger point: In the future, do we really want to return to traveling
Old West style?

Odds are pretty good that budget airlines will be the first to order
the SkyRider, which Menoud says can be used in its own cabin class.
Ireland’s Ryanair already wants to sell standing-room-only seats, and
this could be an aviation-authority-approved alternative. Tickets will
probably be cheaper, but airlines will reap rewards by packing more
people on board. That is, until people give up and choose telepresence
over sardine-style travel.

We’re all for future aircraft technologies that improve flight
efficiency and design. By all means, give us airplanes with self-
cleaning, shape-changing seats made of plant fibers. Please, just
don’t make us sit 23 inches apart.

http://www.popsci.com/node/48244/?cmpid=enews091610


[USA Today]
  #2  
Old September 20th, 2010, 08:53 PM posted to rec.travel.air
AES
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 186
Default Please, Don't Let This Be the Future of Air Travel - sitting 23" apart

In article
,
Ablang wrote:

We¹re all for future aircraft technologies that improve flight
efficiency and design. By all means, give us airplanes with self-
cleaning, shape-changing seats made of plant fibers. Please, just
don¹t make us sit 23 inches apart.

http://www.popsci.com/node/48244/?cmpid=enews091610


The current uncomfortably crowded conditions on passenger airplanes, not
to mention these future proposed atrocities, are in a very real sense
consequences of "improved flight efficiency and design".

Modern jet engines are sufficiently powerful and modern aerodynamics
sufficiently advanced that passenger airliners of given fuselage size,
operating range, and flight crew size can easily and efficiently
transport within this fuselage substantially more loaded weight than
the total weight of the passengers that can be comfortably packed into
this fuselage. (It wouldn't be surprising if they could carry a full
load of passengers stacked like logs until they totally fill the
fuselage.)

Increased passenger density translates directly into maximized
efficiency and revenue (and probably reduced environmental impact).

There's no easy way around this dilemma, except maybe carrying heavy
freight loads in the same aircraft. I don't have any idea how much of
this actually occurs -- but trying to mix speedy and efficient passenger
_and_ freight handling (particularly loading and unloading) in a single
transportation system seems like a difficult proposition.
 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Please, Don't Let This Be the Future of Air Travel - sitting 23" apart Ablang Air travel 1 September 20th, 2010 10:22 PM
DC rally by conservatives: "tens of thousands?" "three hundredthousand?" "five hundred thousand?" "A million people came?" The only thingagreed upon was that it was a "vast crowd" and it spells big tr O'Donovan, PJ, Himself Europe 16 August 31st, 2010 04:16 AM
"liberalism" to "socialism" to "communism": The "end" justifies the "means" in America PJ O'Donovan[_1_] Europe 5 February 24th, 2007 05:57 PM
NCL OnBoard "Future" Cruise Bookings [email protected] Cruises 5 March 25th, 2006 10:36 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 07:26 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 TravelBanter.
The comments are property of their posters.