Developing A Passenger Freight System That Eliminates Seats Entirely

ANN April 1st Special Edition: With improvements such as winglets and engine technology having pushed airliner efficiency near theoretical limits, and passengers still demanding cheaper seats, aircraft designers are looking into radical changes in the way we fly. Airbus has announced a partnership with Ryaniar, the Irish low-cost carrier, to design future airliners with features which could cut the cost of airline travel by at least half.

The shape and size of airliner cabins face design limits based on the shape and size of the human body, which led Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary last year to propose such innovations as fewer restrooms on short-hop flights for passengers willing to simply use the restrooms in the terminal before departure, making room for more seats in the same cabin size. But it was O'Leary's proposal to develop saddles for passengers, allowing a near-standing posture during flights in exchange for tickets as cheap as $19, that really caught the eye of Airbus officials.

Airbus CEO Tom Enders says of O'Leary, "The guy is a visionary. Airline passengers like to complain on blogs about Ryanair's crappy service and sardine-can ethic, but every time regulators agree to reductions in comfort to save a buck, passengers are only to happy to move to the cheaper alternative. It's clear what they really want is not always what they say they want."

In a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed today in Swords, County Dublin, Ireland, the two companies have agreed to collaborate on a new cabin design for a future variant of the Airbus A320 which will borrow heavily from both the pre-boarding system employed by Southwest Airlines and techniques used to optimize the shipping of cargo. Passengers will arrive at the terminal, be paired with a willing partner, and be assisted by gate agents in interlocking their bodies in small, plexiglas cubes measuring approximately 17.5 cubic feet, or about 0.5 cubic meters.

Once in place and briefed on emergency procedures, the passengers will have their cubes closed and connected to fresh air ventilation systems, and stacked on pallets to await the arrival of their planes. The modified A320 aircraft will have no seats, but instead be fitted with clamshell doors which open approximately one third of the cabin ceiling. Upon the plane's arrival at the gate, the roof will be opened, and specialized cranes will move and lower pallets of passenger cubes into the aircraft, where they'll slide fore-and-aft on tracks to allow filling the front and rear of the cabin first, then the center, before the overhead doors are closed.

The idea was reportedly inspired by circus performers Arevik and Tatevik Seyranyan, who will be retained as consultants on the project. The sisters will also be featured prominently in promotional materials, TV ads, and a planned series of in-cube safety videos.

O'Leary says of the system, "We've determined that using this new passenger accommodation modality, an A320 could hold as many as 950 passengers, essentially giving us seat-mile costs well below those of the A380, and with access to far more airports. The estimated elapsed time from a plane's arrival at a gate to its next departure, including deplaning and re-boarding passengers, could be cut to as little as little as six minutes. And best of all, since no one can move once on board, we could eliminate not just one lavatory, but all of them. We also suspect expectations for expensive frills such as in-flight wifi and other cabin entertainment to be greatly reduced."

Enders admits there are some issues to be resolved. "We're not sure what happens in the event someone gets airsickness on the top row of crates. Holes designed to allow passengers to talk between rows might be a problem in such a case. We'll also need to develop certain new emergency procedures. Without traditional exits, for example, we believe it might be necessary in a water landing to instruct pilots on how to execute a barrel roll with the ceiling open in order to free the cubes before impact. We have determined that pallets of cubes will float once released."

There is already talk of how the new passenger accommodation technology might allow joint ventures with cargo companies, possibly making airport terminals as we know them obsolete. The growing relationship between Ryanair and Airbus is also prompting discussion of a consulting deal in which O'Leary may assist Airbus parent EADS in bringing new aircraft development projects in on-time and under-budget.

Airbus says a prototype of the new plane, tentatively given the codename A320knee-oh, could be ready for flight testing by the second quarter of 2013. In order to meet a goal previously announced by EADS to diversify into areas in which the US Dollar is the prevailing currency, the cubes are being prototyped under a contract with US partner Acme Aquarium of Dayton, Ohio.

FMI: http://biggeekdad.com/2011/02/contortion-in-a-cube/