It looks interesting, futuristic, creepy... What do you think?
Here's the article, at CNN Money:
The mini-cabins -- or passenger modules, as Airbus (EADSF) and Zodiac (ZODFF) describe them -- will sit directly on the cargo floor and will not affect the loading of freight and luggage. Airlines will be able to swap the sleeping modules in and out of planes in place of regular cargo containers, the companies said.
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51 comments:
I love it.
They need doubles.
A definite improvement for the mile-high club.
"A definite improvement for the mile-high club."
I hope it's designed so that if you're in the attached bunk, you are not forced to share the ride. Or is the overall feeling of bumpiness on a plane all the masking you need?
Dislike flying commercial passenger aviation as it is. And certainly not below and in the hold. No way Jose.
It's the same accommodation that dogs already get.
Everything should be padded--in case of sudden turbulence. But only crazy people might use them, so the attendants should wear white.
Don't see any mints.
Or pillows, for that matter.
I'd be willing to try it but I wouldn't be willing to pay a thousand dollars or an even more obscene price for the privilege.
I usually sleep on long flights anyway..so I'd definitely be up for this.
I do wonder how this is set up. Do all passengers have regular seats, but can then go down to the hold for a nap? Or are tickets for these beds being sold in place of tickets for seats? How do passengers get to the hold? How do they get out in case of an emergency?
Turbulence?
There's a panic button which ejects the whole pod.
For as long as I can remember traveling by plane has been referred to as being in a cattle car. This just makes it official.
The Japanese salaryman has been using these sorts of businessman bunkbeds for years,
https://www.google.com/search?q=japanese+bunk+beds+for+businessmen&client=firefox-b-1&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQu8-UrLLaAhUD_4MKHXo2AOoQsAQIKA&biw=1141&bih=978
Looks like a Japanese capsule hotel.
Beat me to it, gpsencer.
Calls all the exit row theater into question.
"How do they get out in case of an emergency?"
"Well, sir, we're able to offer you such an attractive price because, well, . . ."
Some W.C.Fields film had an observation deck at the rear of the plane that would be a good selling point today.
Interesting. Some revenue manager arguing for ticketing varying quality existing sleeping cabins in the hold they'd use for crew on long flights, changeable at will, as are seating arrangements in newer planes.Both comfort and regulatory rest requirements, reducing staff, who in he past would take up a first class seat or an equivalent but submarine type bunk built into and above the ceiling. Likely for a tiny increase in revenues. but Worth taking the risk for until their accounting proves wrong.
Prostitution will come up.
Wherever there's a bed there will be somebody who wants to work there.
Passenger trains had tiny cabins (roomettes) for over a century.
But the lack of privacy in these flying bunks is a problem. If one of the passengers gets airsick...
If one of the passengers gets airsick...
Or has a panic attack from claustrophobia
For long haul flights, I'd go one step further and make the whole plane consist of private modules. That way there would be no need to waste space with a floor between cargo and a passenger cabin. TV screens could replace windows and first class would just be a larger, more private cabin. To speed up the whole process, passengers could take luggage into their cabin if not too cumbersome (perhaps one suitcase on wheels and a carry on). Perhaps the conveyor belt that's now used to load luggage in cargo, could be converted to transport passengers on and off the plane with their luggage.
First thought upon seeing that photo was all the sci fi movies where the crew is put to sleep for the multi year trip to where ever.
Its just like a railroad sleeper car, which were standard accomodations before widespread air travel. Mostly gone now I believe, at least Amtrak does not use them on its premier line, the Coast Starlight. There are a couple in the Sacramento Railroad museum. If you wanted to go a long distance cross-country before the 1960's, and you could afford it, you booked a berth on a sleeper.
Or for that matter passenger cabins on ships in the old days, even luxury vessels. We went to Europe in the 60's on the P&O Oriana (stopping at Hong Kong, Singapore, Colombo, Bombay, Aden, Suez, Naples, Marseille). The cabins were tiny.
I'd prefer faster aircraft, but barring that if I had the money and it is to be one of those 12-16 hour flights, then sign me up for the sleeper.
One requirement for both proper sleepers and steamship cabins is having a staff to maintain them.
On US railroads these persons were mainly black men, famously unionized as the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
On British steamships these were almost all Lascars, Indian sailors and stewards, which in P&O service were required to speak English.
I'm facing two 13-hour flights in the near future. But I don't like to sleep on planes. I prefer to arrive super-tired, then sleep and reset the bio-clock. Or try to.
Imagine getting somewhere well-rested after a 13-hour flight and it's the middle of the night!
I hope I can get some work done on these flights. We'll see.
MadMan, it's better to sleep as much as you can on the flights. Due to jet lag you will still be tired when you arrive so you will sleep again. Trying to bull your way through and then sleep on arrival doesn't really work well.
Re: maskirovka:
I'd be willing to try it but I wouldn't be willing to pay a thousand dollars or an even more obscene price for the privilege.
On a cross-Pacific flight, I would be willing to pay an add on of about $500 each way for this. My first question was what they would do during takeoff and landing, since they make you put your seat in the full upright and locked position, even (especially) if you're in a lie-flat seat. But I guess you're in a normal seat for takeoff and landing, and then you can spend the rest of the flight down in the hold napping or whatever.
Re: MadisonMan:
I think it really depends when you're arriving. The flight I usually take to Tokyo has me arriving at Narita in the late afternoon, so I try to sleep on the first half of the flight (immediately after the first meal service), and then wake up after maybe 4 hours, and remain awake for the remainder of the flight, so that I'm tired by the time I arrive home (getting from Narita into Tokyo is at minimum two hours from touchdown with customs and immigration and then the train/bus into the city). Going the other way, I sometimes take a flight that arrives in the US in the morning, so I do the opposite (and sometimes just sleep through the second meal service), since I have the day ahead of me and want to be rested if possible.
Robert Service on sleeping car porters
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46654/pullman-porter
He was forever at my call,
So when we got to Montreal
And he had brushed me off, I said:
“I’m glad my poems you have read,
I feel quite flattered, I confess,
And if you give me your address
I’ll send you (autographed, of course)
One of my little books of verse.”
He smiled — his teeth were white as milk;
He spoke — his voice was soft as silk.
I recognized, despite his skin,
The perfect gentleman within.
Then courteously he made reply:
“I thank you kindly, Sir, but I
With many other cherished tome
Have all your books of verse at home.
“When I was quite a little boy
I used to savour them with joy;
And now my daughter, aged three,
Can tell the tale of Sam McGee;
While Tom, my son, that’s only two,
Has heard the yarn of Dan McGrew ....
Don’t think your stuff I’m not applaudin’ —
My taste is Eliot and Auden.”
Looks like a Japanese capsule hotel.
That's what I thought it was at first.
Regarding sleeper cars, they still exist on some long-distance East Coast lines like the Amtrak Auto Train from Lorton Va. to Orlando Fla. Pretty utilitarian last time I checked.
Looks like something I'd really love to use, but that's too expensive for the likes of me
Blogger buwaya said...
Its just like a railroad sleeper car, which were standard accomodations before widespread air travel. Mostly gone now I believe, at least Amtrak does not use them on its premier line, the Coast Starlight. There are a couple in the Sacramento Railroad museum
I was on the Amtrak Denver-SF route 5 years ago. Notionally called the Zephyr, but not anything like Dad's WP Zephyr
anyway, we had a very small compartment that had 2 seats facing, with a door to the aisle.
at night, the seats folded into a single bunk and a pull down bunk, handled the other person
I'd rather ride in the cargo hold than sit in First Class next to a 300-pound woman with a comfort monkey.
"300-pound woman with a comfort monkey."
In the 19th century Anglosphere Oscar Wilde was the model of a decadent fellow.
In the days of Rome it was Petronius Arbiter
These days in America it is the 300-pound woman with a comfort monkey.
Decadence isn't what it used to be.
We're going to have deduct points for making it look like "2001: A Space Odyssey".
Let me out of here, now, Hal...
I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave ...
I can imagine the piles of semen-stained sheets and urine-soaked mattresses out behind the airport.
Open the pod bay doors, Alexa.
Blogger MadisonMan said...
I'm facing two 13-hour flights in the near future. But I don't like to sleep on planes. I prefer to arrive super-tired, then sleep and reset the bio-clock. Or try to.
Imagine getting somewhere well-rested after a 13-hour flight and it's the middle of the night!
I hope I can get some work done on these flights. We'll see.
This is how I do it going. Coming back I do the opposite, get on the plane super tired. Stay awake until I match home time, then sleep.
I fly the Dallas-Sydney route a lot (about to do it again soon). 16-17 hours. The first time I flew economy. Never again. I’d consider these if the price was right.
Air New Zealand is about to start a Chicago to Auckland route I’m very interested in, but it also is a 16-17 hour flight.
The 12 plus hour flights from Asia to the US are hell for some of us.
This not only leads to swollen legs for some of us with varicose veins, but is a hazard for pulmonary emboli.
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/dvt/travel.html
In the past, we could walk around the cabin or go to the smoking section in the back and stand around and talk, or often strech out because many seats were empty, but no more.
”This not only leads to swollen legs for some of us with varicose veins, but is a hazard for pulmonary emboli.”
On two ocassions when I have landed in Dallas coming from Sydney we were asked to remain in our seats while paramedics came on board and hauled a passenger off the plane.
No more creepy than the way the sardine-packed slave ship in the cabins look.
So then where will the actual cargo go now?
So then where will the actual cargo go now?
It all goes in the lap of the 300-pound woman in First Class with a comfort monkey.
There's room.
Just so the pods cannot be ejected during flight.
“Would you like to lie down and sleep?”
“No thanks, I’d rather sit upright in this narrow seat with no knee room for the next 10 hours.”
(Said no one, ever, on a transatlantic flight).
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