Airbus is having a busy year, it seems. The company has again filed for some new patents that talk about economy class seats that will cater to passengers by providing them something similar to the bicycle saddles. The patent talks about allowing the firm to cater for more people during flights that last only a couple of hours.
The seats can be flipped to create more space in the cabin when they are not in use. According to the patent application; ‘In effect, to increase the number of cabin seats, the space allotted to each passenger must be reduced.’ The bicycle seats are affixed to a vertical bar and capable of being retracted when not in use as mentioned already.
The Airbus officials have stated that the patent does not request for the seats to be commercialized. Mary Anne Greczyn, Spokeswoman for Airbus, says; ‘Many, if not most, of these concepts will never be developed, but in case the future of commercial aviation makes one of our patents relevant, our work is protected. Right now these patent filings are simply conceptual.’
The firm has also admitted, as you would have guessed by now, that this approach would only work for short hour flight and said; ‘Reduced comfort remains tolerable for the passengers in as much as the flight lasts only one or a few hours.’
Do you think Airbus will employ this concept if granted the patent or is the patent really as it has been stated; a way of owning its ideas?