Sitting in the airport waiting at the gate, I noticed some fat people that might have needed two seats. Some people have an iffy girth, though. Proposed are a series of seat mock-ups available at the main desk(s) for the major planes (like A320, 737) so you can see if you fit.-- kevinthenerd, Jul 25 2012 Sliding scale airplane seats Sliding_20scale_20plane_20seats [bungston, Jul 27 2012] Probably best to put video cameras in the curtained booth connected to large video displays in the departure lounge, for hilarity. [+].-- 8th of 7, Jul 25 2012 How about having two gates next to each other? On the right would be a gate the width of an aeroplane seat. On the left would be a double width gate, but you have to hold two adjacent reservations to be permitted through it.-- pocmloc, Jul 25 2012 I keep reading this as Airplane Sea Trout.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 25 2012 Me too - I read it as "Airplane Seat Trout". I envisaged a clear plastic water-filled airplane (or "aeroplane", to be exact) seat with a lone trout swimming around in it. When the flight attendant says "Would you like the steak or the fish?", if you ask for the fish, the flight attendant would unzip a corner of the seat, thrust their arm in, grab the trout and whip it out (the trout, that is - that wasn't intended to be a double entrendre) and flambé it in front of you.-- hippo, Jul 25 2012 [pocmloc], I think you're on to something. It would be like when fighters have to weigh in right before a match - and then the seat width and your ticket price is adjusted at the last minute.
Hydraulically controlled adjustable seats are going to add weight though.-- normzone, Jul 25 2012 Since, relatively speaking (and unless you're flying <shudder> Horus Air) the seats on the actual airplane are more comfortable than any seat to be found in the terminal, just use the airplane seats everywhere. This would have all the benefits of [ktn]'s original idea, it would make delays and layovers marginally more comfortable, and it would boost much- needed revenue for the airplane seat manufacturing industry. Buns will be served when the aircraft has reached cruising altitude.-- Alterother, Jul 25 2012 Alternatively of course, the airline could simply rent out cabin space by the cubic foot and have a bring-your-own chair policy.-- FlyingToaster, Jul 25 2012 Perhaps you could pass through a series of gates that get smaller as you go - when you can no longer fit through the gate a seat of that size is loaded onto the plane for you and you are billed accordingly (accordianly).-- normzone, Jul 25 2012 // accordianly //
A bit of a squeeze, then ?-- 8th of 7, Jul 25 2012 // Probably best to put them in a curtained booth, for privacy.
Why is privacy needed? They won't have it when they sit on the plane.
Anyway. What is the plan if it turns out the flyer-to-be doesn't fit?-- tatterdemalion, Jul 25 2012 747(c)-- Alterother, Jul 25 2012 // They won't have it when they sit on the plane. //
Ooooh, smart ...
// What is the plan if it turns out the flyer-to-be doesn't fit //
Well, there are two options. There's the nice option, which involves the passenger paying for a second seat, and the nasty option, which you probably don't want to know about; just to dissuade you from enquiring further, the full description includes the phrases "gas turbine intake", "fuel bowser hose", "duct tape", "no anaesthetic" and "liposuction".-- 8th of 7, Jul 25 2012 This is brilliant. My cousin and I are people who are.. ahem.. "of size" and just for the sake of our own comfort when we fly together, we should be able to buy 3 seats collectively.. which leads me to annotating this idea by suggesting that you can be assigned a "seat buddy" based upon this factor.
Like someone fat can sit next to someone very skinny.. and if they are both OK with it after testing this in the tryout seat, then the problem is solved before they even get on the plane.
It would also give the fat person a heads-up to avoid embarrassment. When he sees the sign that says, "you must be able to sit in this seat to qualify for a single ticket price" he can visually judge the situation and discreetly buy 2 tickets.-- Jscotty, Jul 25 2012 This begs for modular seating in airplanes; there are three different-sized seats, all of which lock into the same evenly-spaced rails (don't ask me how, a mysterious dearth of napkins has prevented me from working it out yet), and before boarding the flight attendants go over the passenger manifest and perform a tetris-like seat arrangement.-- Alterother, Jul 26 2012 Or have bench seats, and the armrest & seat-belt-stanchions slot into a perforated metal bar oooooooooooo , that runs between the butt section and the back section of the bench. [Js] and his cousin could just have one of the armrests removed and the other moved to the middle of the seat. Or an adult and 3 kids could occupy a 3-seater by adding an armrest and shifting the others around.
The armrests and seatbelt stanchions on either end of the entire seat are fixed in place.
Downside is the backrest couldn't be reclined individually for each passenger.-- FlyingToaster, Jul 26 2012 [FyingToaster] - If the backrest was divided into thin strips, each of which could be reclined individually or in conjunction with its neighbours, the reclining problem would be solved. And in your model, passengers would pay for their seat by the inch (or 2.54 centimetres, outside the US).-- hippo, Jul 27 2012 If the armrests had sides to them, that would still fold away to allow access, when in place the excess fat of these unfortunate individuals would not be able to spill over into the space allocated to their fellow passengers-- xenzag, Jul 27 2012 Passengers need to be packed by weight, not by volume (contents may settle during transit).
The bottom line (hem,hem) is that the limiting factor from an aviation point of view is the all-up weight of the plane at takeoff.
Sure, the accountants would love to cram more unfortunates into the overhead lockers and the cargo hold, thus maximising profit, but it means the plane couldn't fly.
Airlines don't weigh passengers (yet), but they do weigh luggage. The pilot works out the W&B from tables, based on check-in data on proportions of males, females, children and infants.
The obvious answer is to stop being coy about this and start offering air travel based on weight, because it's not about discrimination or implied lifestyle criticism or any other social factor; it's simply about physics and aerodynamics. Grow up! Although not too much, or you'll end up paying more for your air travel…-- 8th of 7, Jul 27 2012 Being that the population of obese people is increasing every day, why not let skinny people fly free? Therefore, if you can fit into this seat which is 12 inches wide, there is no charge.-- Jscotty, Jul 27 2012 I cannot, and furthermore will not, travel in a seat 12" wide, even if it's free.-- Alterother, Jul 27 2012 seein as it's free, I'll take 2.-- FlyingToaster, Jul 27 2012 Fine, but you'll have to sit with a fat person between you.-- Alterother, Jul 27 2012 Would that mean travelling half-and-half fare ?-- 8th of 7, Jul 27 2012 random, halfbakery