Flight Was Standing Room Only
link Please, Dont Let This Be the Future of Air Travel | Popular Science.
As if. We know that the idea of cubbyhole hotels has been proved successful in high rent cities like New York and Tokyo. These are bare bones accommodations which are little more than closet sized sleeping quarters for travellers on a budget. We are accustomed to seeing Smart cars, which are essentially roller coaster cars with doors and a roof. But unless I misread human nature entirely, the latest proposal for airplane seats will be an iffy sell. It will give new meaning to flying ‘standby’.
As can be seen by the photo, people are expected to buy into the notion of being half perched on a saddle scrunched within inches of the next passenger. We can see the demographic for this type of seating will be huge. There may be a few exceptions: Anyone over 4 feet 10; Anyone over 92 pounds; Anyone wearing a skirt; Anyone suffering from hemorrhoids. I understand that the airlines will push a marketing campaign in order to sell this method of travel. Everyone who boards will be ink branded with a number to correspond with their perching position. It will be like collecting hand stamps at a fair. How fun is that! The similarity to herding cattle is purely coincidental. Since there is no room for any tray tables, there will be two modes of drink offerings for the passengers. The first one will be drop down tubes from the overhead area from which riders can take liquids. The second method will be the carts pushed by the stewards. Long tubes will be extended to each of the riders like tentacles at a chicken farm.
No one will be able to read or work on a computer, so people will be forced to converse with their seatmates. Since there will likely be 8 people within 3 feet of you, it will be like a dinner party. How social! The hours will just zip by. And if they think that’s bad, wait until they see how the washrooms are configured. Let’s just say, don’t wear new shoes on these types of flights.