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Bunk beds in aircraft cabins: the realistic prospects
- VoodooJuJu 3y ago[flagged]
- dylan604 3y agoYou won't be happy, you won't be mad, you won't be anything other than comatose during the duration of the transport. Docile cattle would be ideal.
- bigbillheck 3y agoGod willing I'll never have to fly again but failing that if I had the option of safely getting knocked out for the duration I'd take it.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- traceroute66 3y agoGiven how much the quality of the cleaning regime varies between airlines, I shudder at the thought of what you might find in, for example, a British Airways bunk bed.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- ghaff 3y agoEh. You have lie-flat seating today which pretty much has the advantages without the disadvantages. It just comes down to cost.
- traceroute66 3y ago> You have lie-flat seating today And Finnair are probably demonstrating the likely direction of travel in that area. Finnair are in the process of replacing all lie-flat seats with non-recline slouch seats that you can lie flat in by shifting your body rather than mechanically modifying the seat. Search "Finnair non-recline" on YouTube, lots of videos, here's one randomly picked[1]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSKb48_zKqU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSKb48_zKqU
- londons_explore 3y ago> It just comes down to cost. I want 5-high bunk beds in specially made planes with lower/no cabin floors. Then lay-flat flights can be even cheaper than regular seating.
- coffeebeqn 3y agoNo floors? How do you go to the bathroom ?
- londons_explore 3y agoA plane is basically a cylinder. People are normally in the top half, and the bottom half is the cargo area. It has to be pretty close to a cylinder for structural reasons. By lowering the floor, you get far more space for people, but also far less flat floor area (most of the floor is curved and not easy/suitable for walking on)
- paulmd 3y agoI know this is not a direct response but I’m picturing steerage and everyone just pisses off the bunkbeds into the empty, curving bottom of the aircraft below, an open-air sewer in-flight. London experience indeed. Turbulence would be interesting.
- ashconnor 3y agoThe lie flat economy class remains ever elusive. Air New Zealand have a solution but it's not great. https://www.airnewzealand.com/economy-skycouch https://www.airnewzealand.com/economy-skycouch
- adaml_623 3y ago"The airline did not respond to a request for an update before this piece went to press" ... Would not have guessed that aircraftinteriorsinternational.com had such tight deadlines Which is a pity because it's a very interesting article
- hanniabu 3y agoYou have no idea how long they waited
- i5heu 3y agoTo squish more ppl in an aircraft while not creating deal breakers of problems is quite the interesting Problem to solve i think. Like i would be totally ok to have 50cm heigh bunks like in an uboat, but most ppl would probably get quite anxious in such a coffin. If you are not thin you cannot rotate in such a bunk or even put your hand on your stomach, or even fit into it.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- stemlord 3y ago>but most ppl would probably get quite anxious in such a coffin 100%, that is absolute nightmare fuel
- culebron21 3y agoDignity -- this is what's forgotten in these designs. I prefer sleeper trains to intercity buses, even when not needing to sleep, exactly for that: you can travel with dignity. You can sit upright, stand up, or lay down, which you can't do on an intercity bus.
- dzhiurgis 3y agoDignity fades on a 18 hour red eyed flight I’d sleep on floor if stewards let me
- klysm 3y agoDignity is closely related to sleep deprivation
- candiodari 3y agoI have actually done that. Also laid on 4 seats sideways because they were unoccupied.
- grecy 3y ago>Dignity -- this is what's forgotten in these designs. I've flown a 15 hour flight at least a dozen times in economy. Trust me when I say there is no dignity after 14 hours of trying to get a little sleep with your mouth wide open, snoring loudly, drool coming out and your head lolling onto the person next to you. When I think of that 15 hour flight the very last word in my mind is dignity.
- darth_avocado 3y ago[flagged]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- ryandrake 3y agoAt this point, I don't know why they don't just use cargo jets, give us all tranquilizers as we board, and stack us on top of each other like firewood. There doesn't seem to be any level of service that customers won't stoop to accepting in order to save a few more bucks on the fare.
- mikepurvis 3y agoThat sounds great; I’d take that option even if it wasn’t cheaper lol.
- loloquwowndueo 3y agoDon’t give them ideas, they would actually charge extra for the tranquilizer. Snoozing through the entire flight actually sounds like a blessing.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- MilStdJunkie 3y agoTaking this to the Nth degree, you could optimize the air travel process to an incredible degree. So you make a pod, with tubes for air/water/food(maybe), power for systems/temperature/entertainment, and communications. It's got room for pax and luggage. Big ass airport lobby, you take your sedatives, get in the pod, and then that is it so far as "regular users mucking up the process. The pods get routed to aircraft, aircraft take off, they land, pods routed to lobby, and off go the pax. The pods pass through what's essentially a gigantic dishwasher, sterilizing them, re-dressing with consumables, and the process repeats. Cabin design could make absolutely maximal use of internal volume, with just a central stem for routing the pods. A smaller subdivision could be reserved for emergencies where passengers need to be de-podded. I don't know about you, but spending eight hours in a private little pod, sleeping and whatnot, sounds like some sort of personal nirvana compared to a intercontinental coach seat, which - at my advancing age - is getting to be something close to frickin' torture. I don't have the bandwidth to run numbers on this, but I am betting an airport could probably more than quintuple their load/unload speed. Actually . . shit . . they'd clog their strips really damn quickly unless you did some sort of super optimization on the landing/takeoff/ground ATC. Although you do have the increased capacity per plane . . I dunno. This might be a fun weekend project.
- foreigner 3y agoOMG I want this so bad at the economy level. The TU Delft / Flying V design looks totally workable. Take my money!
- dan-robertson 3y agoWhat premium would you pay for something like that? Say on a flight from SF to Tokyo (or some other long haul flight)
- lodovic 3y agoIt would save a full day of recovering from a sleepless night cramped in a small airplane seat. When staying a week it would effectively add a day, and justify a 15% difference. And night flights are usually cheaper or sometime even the only option for remote destinations so I'd still take it at a 30% premium for some of the shown systems. It looks super comfortable and offers more privacy. (although you may not want people to have too much privacy on a plane)
- dzhiurgis 3y agoPremium? Airlines can fit more people this way. Which also means less airplanes sold…
- foreigner 3y agoIt fits the same number of people in the same space, we shouldn't have to pay much of a premium.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- mlindner 3y agoI honestly love the idea. Remove the cargo bay and overhead bag rack and then stack bunk beds floor to ceiling for tremendous density while still being able to lie down. You should be able to fit way more people in the plane than they do sitting down and do it more comfortably as well.
- roelschroeven 3y agoWhere does the luggage go?
- mlindner 3y agoIn folded down beds that you pay extra for. Also it's possible that some portions are too oddly shaped to fit people so that can also be used for luggage.
- martopix 3y agoThe amount of cabin luggage we bring is too much anyway. You can impose small bags only, the rest in the hold.
- sokoloff 3y agoThe hold that the origin of this subthread eliminated? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39802214 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39802214
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- ianburrell 3y agoIt isn’t possible to use whole volume since the floor is structural. Also, the wing spars run through the hold. There is also important equipment in the lower area. It is impossible to use cargo hold. It doesn’t have the escape routes and would be death trap. Plus, the hold is full of bags.
- jccalhoun 3y agoThe thing all the examples shown in the article have in common? They are designed for teeny tiny baby sized people. I'm 6ft 4in and I am willing to bet that none of the designs are for accommodating tall people.
- novok 3y agoEconomy class as it is doesn't accommodate tall men properly either on a pure shoulder width basis as it is, with ever shrinking seat widths and economy+ doesn't fix this either. It's also an airplane only thing, vast majority of seats are wide enough for an extra inch or two of shoulder width from the male average.
- culebron21 3y agoI'm not tall, just 175 cm, but even for me it looks like you'd have to travel with no dignity. Those 2-level chairs where you have to shunt your body in... This is happening even in sleeper train designs too: instead of a coupe with 2 sofas with a table in the middle and 2 (or 4) folding berths above them, you're getting non-convertible suitcase to throw your body in, and lay down all the way, probably looking into a phone. No serious window, no sitting at a table, no standing upright. Plus, for some reason all the stuff is really thick. Like earlier there were cases for bags under the sofa, with wall made a sheet of steel. Now they're desinging them like 4 cm (2") thick, probably of cardboard, and they just eat space (because train cars have no place to expand, they've been at max widths already). I have to add that a berth with a rectangular wall behind to lean against, is a torture for anyone's spine -- whether for lower back or for the neck.
- AndrewKemendo 3y agoMaybe it’s just not for everyone I think we have this idea that something can be designed to accommodate anyone and it’s just wrong You can’t fly a fighter jet if you’re too tall or too short Should we change the requirement so that anyone can fly it? No, we just say you can’t fly if you’re this size Not everything is for everyone
- adastra22 3y ago
- nuc1e0n 3y agoHow about dual layer chaise lounge chairs with minature elevators to get to your seat?
- xg15 3y agoFifth Element vibes intensifying...