Most of the news about airplane seats tends to be about luxurious lie-flat seats, suites, even apartments for those with lots of money to spend on comfort.
But every now and then there’s a flurry of news about new ways to seat economy (read ‘cattle class’) passengers on airlines. They’ve ranged from Ryanair’s one-time proposal for semi-standing passengers on stools to making seats thinner, or more tilting or less.
But this one is different. A company called Universal Movement, which oddly is a subsidiary of a British company called New Territory, appears to be trying to live up to both of its names with a seat that trades in headrests for padded wings that pull out on both sides of the seat. The idea of the Interspace Seat is to allow passengers to lean against the wings and, just maybe, actually sleep a bit. And enjoy a bit of privacy.
So far, no announcement of any airlines ordering them, but it did generate huge interest earlier this month when it was displayed at Virgin Atlantic’s Cabin Innovation Summit in London