Take A Look At The Future Of Economy Airline Seating

Contorting your body to fit into cramped economy class airline seats is bad enough without the person seated in front of you invading your space. Reclining seats have been a point of contention amongst fliers for years and as seat pitch gets smaller, the problem has only gotten worse with some passengers even coming to blows over the issue.

Other passengers take a more passive aggressive approach. Remember this traveler who took matters into his own hands and rigged the seat in front of him so it would stay in the upright position? Or what about the Knee Defender, the invention we told you about last year, which is designed to keep airline seats from reclining?

Well, finally, someone has come up with a solution to the seat reclining dramas. The AirGo is an economy class seat designed by an engineering student for the James Dyson Award. Alireza Yaghoubi took first prize for his design concept, which aims to give fliers control over their limited seat space, even when the passenger in front of them reclines.The seats are designed with individual bulkheads, so each passenger has their own area to stow luggage. Suspended from this are the tray table and TV screen, which aren’t affected if fellow passengers recline. The seats themselves are made of a nylon mesh designed to minimize sweating and are fully customizable to suit each traveler’s posture.

While the seating concept does take up 16 percent more space than a regular economy class seat, hopefully the benefits will sway airlines to get onboard.

Check out pictures of the AirGo seat below.

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[Photo credit: Alireza Yaghoubi]

Excubo Jacket Fights Gravity, Lets You Sleep on Public Transportation

How annoying is it when you’re sitting in your seat — be it airline, bus, train, class, or car passenger — you’re dozing off, and your head keeps falling? I mean, all you want to do is just sleep, but stupid old gravity keeps rearing its ugly, weighty head and messing with your plans.

I guess Matthew Gale thought it was pretty annoying, since he designed a jacket for sleeping on public transportation. Called the Excubo (Latin for “I sleep outside”), the jacket has a retractable collar that folds down when you need to be awake and locks up when you want to catch some shut eye. Nobody cares if you think Gale’s idea is good or not, because he won first place in a design competition sponsored by the Industrial Designers Society of America and James Dyson, that really blond vacuum guy.

First place Gale needs to market these? Japan. Why? See for yourself.

[Via Gothamist]