Civil aircraft manufacturer Airbus has submitted a patent for seats that reconfigure based on passenger size. At last, the additional judgment you’ve so desperately ached for may finally become reality!
Oh, you sit on the bench?
We jest, but the new bench seats do have the potential to improve flying for families and overweight passengers. A silly mock-up of the re-configurable passenger bench seat shows two overweight individuals sharing the bench with the added comfort of retractable arm rests. The drawings look super legitimate and the squiggly lines used for labeling almost guarantee the patent request will be granted.
To show further options, another drawing depicts two parents and two bizarre forest elves sharing the bench, with no arm rests pictured. This image is a little tougher to take seriously as the whole family is holding hands and the “children” look like shrunken, yet older versions of their father.
Seat belts in the re-configurable seat are detachable and capable of accommodating two, three, or four passengers. Should we be concerned that the seat belts themselves can move? Who knows.
The innovative design may make travel more comfortable for certain individuals, but it also seems like a pretty transparent way to make more money by jamming as many bodies on a plane as possible.
A third mock-up shows three “lean” passengers seated on the bench in an economy-class setting, each with arm rests.
In this mock-up, two of the passengers are sporting a new style of trouser that features a cropped right leg, while the left leg shows a pant ending in a seamless sock attachment. We’re not sure if Airbus is trying to pull a fast one by proposing a new pant design within their patent or not. It’s kind of like when the government tries to hide sneaky caveats in bills proposed for actually important issues. We’ll just have to wait until Fashion Week 2017 to find out.
Between virtual reality helmets, split-level seating and nonsensical storage, Airbus has proposed quite a few “innovative” ideas in the past, so we aren’t holding our breath on this one.
(Via Daily Mail)
