The 787 Remarkable Seat Range

Before you get out your calculators and slide rulers here's the sum of it all. The 787 has a range of anywhere from 195 seats to 375 seats. In a prior Blog, The "Art of Seat Wars", the air space was ploughed through with the following seat range.

• Japan Airline 195 seats slide into place on its newest 787-9, not a possible 375 passengers, 
• Norwegian air seats 291 passengers on its smaller 787-8,
• and Jet Star's "per passenger smaller" 787-8 seat 331 compliant passengers

The game has shifted from Boeing to the airline entrepreneurs everywhere. Let's face it Boeing, you have built a travel tool and those wise Guys of business are re-writing the travel books over its aircraft efficiency. Who wins is the traveler. Whether you pay $600 a seat or $199, a traveler is going somewhere fast. Much like the astronauts of old. The technology has shifted to a few cubic feet allotted each passenger. Seat technology has entered the Aviation Renaissance. Control what you can control", is the seat makers motto. So, taking ideas from early NASA they will bend a passenger into a very comfortable small space with plenty to do even sleep.

The space under your seat is up for grabs at this time. It is currently, the habitat for handbags, computers, and brief cases. Since overhead bins have grown substantially on the 787, it is expected the under seat world will become high price real estate for passengers. The pitch wars have begun in earnest. The passenger sitting behind you, kicks your seat back, cusses and gives out rude gestures freely as you recline. Here are some ideas under review.

Freeze the hard shell of a seat back which contains the behind passenger's, entertainment screen, food tray and magazine pocket. 

Take-away the under seat space from the passenger in front currently has, and reserve this space for seat pitch flexibility as a passenger adjust its seat from upright to recline.

Build a drop down a "glove box" from the overhead bin bottom where carry-ons reside. This is where you would store your purse, coat, case etc. for the trip. The "Glove Box" in measured to seat width and sits behind lighting and airflow controls, is 14 inches deep by four inches thick.     

Finally, is the seat mechanics itself. When going to recline option, the foot rest slides further forward under the seat in front in synchronization with the seats recline, and while the seats inner shell slides into recline position having the backs outer shell remaining in place. The fixed back is reserved for the passenger behind own entertainment system. No matter what the passenger does, front or back, it doesn't impede any other passenger space. It's that passengers space refined and limited to the cubic seat space, flexing within the space allocated. 

The end of borrowing space from another passenger when a passenger reclines, beckons a solution for ending passenger seat wars. Extending pitch geometry going under the seat in front will give all passengers comfortable space. When a window seater needs an aisle entry for doing his rest area work, a simple pop of the seat button, by each passenger, will upright them allowing this exiting window passenger room. 

A beveled angular seat back carved from knee level to ankle area forward is a permanent feature for the unmovable seat frame portion in front, allowing recline dynamics for seat behind and its passenger leg room.  When the reclining seat frame inside, rotates within the main fixed seat frame, its slides into recline position, the front lip of the seat pad will drop over the edge slightly, just as a roll top desk cover does when sliding up during opening.

Clever astronaut-like seat design keeps the passenger comfortable, within its space and private. Getting in or getting out is not a gymnastic floor exercise. The space they have rented is defined and impenetrable from children kicking from behind, and obnoxious sleep-overs reclining from the seat in front of them. It will provide a systematic corridor for co-passengers running to and fro in your row space. Push "upright" and give your seat mate a "Nice Trip".

All this seat research was done getting on and off the 737 single aisle and it made me think how could this be better when stacking cord wood for the fuel burn. Allocate space to others where others are not even aware of, and keep the monsters out of my assigned space. New seat rules need to written.

• What's under their seat is my space.
• What's behind my fixed seat back stays behind my fixed seat back.
• A false bottom of the overhead storage is "ours" for carry-on private storage.
• I'm an astronaut and I intend staying in orbit for at least one continent.

Okay Seat Makers, this is your challenge! "Just Do It"