The Invention That Will Make You Want the Middle Seat on a Plane
When companies try to reinvent the airline seating arrangement, it's often in the name of making us even more miserable with new and interesting ways to cram more people inside a plane. But Molon Labe Designs has something that might do the impossible: Make you desire the middle seat.
It's called the Side-Slip Seat, and there are two important things to know. The first is that the middle seat sits slightly below and behind the aisle and window seats, giving the passenger more space (though no additional legroom, sadly) as well as access to both armrests.
Big idea number two is the "slip" part of the name. Fast Company explains:
Because the middle seat is offset, the aisle seat can literally slide on top of it to make the aisle wider during boarding, easing the traffic jam that always occurs as people put bags in the overhead compartment and get settled. This means that aircraft could be boarded faster.
University of Colorado engineering professor Hank Scott is the man behind the idea. His smart seats are now on their 5th full version and are undergoing final crash testing with the FAA. Whether he can convince cash-strapped airlines to splurge for these stress relievers is another matter, but hey: Boarding a plane faster is better for everybody's bottom line and overall sanity.
Source: Fast Company
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