Aviation
Airbus patents economy-class ‘sleep pods’
One of the world’s leading aeroplane manufacturers has come up with a radical new seat design -with split-level seating inside the cabin.
The arrangement proposed by Airbus designers would be used in a premium cabin such as business class with rows in the middle section alternating between floor level and an elevated level that is several feet higher.
Every seat would recline into a lying position, and those at the lower level would have an ottoman with stairs or a ladder mounted on the side to allow passengers to climb into their mezzanine seats. 
Airbus delivers its first aircraft produced in the USA.(Opens in a new browser tab)
The new design will maximize seating capacity on planes that have yet to reach their full potential, according to the plane manufacturer.
“In modern means of transport, in particular in aircraft, it is very important from an economic point of view to make optimum use of the available space in a passenger cabin,” Airbus wrote in the patent application.
“In order to still more efficiently use the space in a passenger cabin of an aircraft, [the patent] proposes to position an elevated deck structure on a main deck floor in the passenger cabin of a wide-body aircraft for providing a mezzanine seating area in a substantially unused upper lobe of the aircraft fuselage.”
As for comfort, the pods are equipped with a “reclining cushion” which can be elevated so that occupants can view the television suspended from the ceiling.
If done right, the pods may represent a significant step forward for comfort in economy, especially on overnight flights. Certainly questions remain, particularly how passengers will get in and out of these, especially if they’re arranged in stacks of three, as the patent describes—economy boarding is usually a patience-trying game of Tetris as it is.
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