Modular Seating

Manic Moran

Flight of fancy here, but for airlines where the Holy Grail is turnaround time, what's the chances of loading passengers into their seats not on the aircraft, and then loading the seat modules? Effectively, you'd be using a cargo door, not the normal door, something like the 737-700C which combines a cargo-style door with conventional aircraft windows.

Palletised seating is nothing new, and I've been moved a few inches forward and backwards after being seated as the loadmasters moved the pallets around. I'm just expanding the concept. Pallets up to 15 seats are typical for cargo aircraft
,
but you can make them as big as the cargo door will allow. You can probably get everyone off and on a B737 in about ten minutes. And since we passengers are being treated like self-loading cargo anyway, why not finish the job and be treated entirely like cargo?

NTM

donkey balls

Jet2 have a B737 that's a pax/freighter combi I remember seeing it in BFS also Titan airways from memory had an ATR42 and a BAE146 as combi many a time I loaded the ATR,As for using one to load pax I could never see it happening due to H&S plus the costs of buying in maindeck loaders I'm sure MOL probely loowed into it though.:p

castie

Manic Moran wrote: »

Flight of fancy here, but for airlines where the Holy Grail is turnaround time, what's the chances of loading passengers into their seats not on the aircraft, and then loading the seat modules? Effectively, you'd be using a cargo door, not the normal door, something like the 737-700C which combines a cargo-style door with conventional aircraft windows.

Palletised seating is nothing new, and I've been moved a few inches forward and backwards after being seated as the loadmasters moved the pallets around. I'm just expanding the concept. Pallets up to 15 seats are typical for cargo aircraft
,
but you can make them as big as the cargo door will allow. You can probably get everyone off and on a B737 in about ten minutes. And since we passengers are being treated like self-loading cargo anyway, why not finish the job and be treated entirely like cargo?

NTM

Wouldnt the cost of loading/unloading go against it?
After all we load and unload ourselves for free!

Plowman

This post has been deleted.

Poly

It could be am idea for charter holidays, where the passengers are too fat/drunk/stupid to find their own seats

FlutterinBantam

Won't happen. not practical..

lintdrummer

Now I understand why you've got that username MM!

xper

Manic Moran wrote: »

Flight of fancy here, but for airlines where the Holy Grail is turnaround time, what's the chances of loading passengers into their seats not on the aircraft, and then loading the seat modules? Effectively, you'd be using a cargo door, not the normal door, something like the 737-700C which combines a cargo-style door with conventional aircraft windows.

The vast majority of airliners currently in use do not have a large apperture door like that one. Even if you had a purpose-designed aircraft, equipment and airport terminal to do this, it is just horribly complicating the very felxible conventional boarding process. Passengers aren't called "self-loading freight" for nothing.

xflyer

Well there was the CH54.




Ok it's a helicopter. But everyone gets seated in the pod. It gets wheeled out, plugged in and off we go. You could even load passengers engines running. Five minute turnarounds anyone? The flaw would be having to have spare pods all over the routes. On the other hand if all airline manufacturers agreed to a standard pod, like the way shipping containers are standard. Then airports would hold stocks of standard pods for all airlines. If you had two or three pods per aircraft you could leave one or other behind when you don't have full loads. Think of the fuel savings!

The more I think of it the more brilliant it seems. I think I'll patent the idea!:cool:

CatFromHue

ah you can't beat an old flight of fancy.

the thing missing from your pic is the overhead compartment for your bags. which for most flights is fairly important. putting your gear away prob takes the most amount of time when you're getting seated.

so instead of a modularised seating how about modularised overhead compartments. it would only work for assigned seating. by reducing the length of the compartments themselves it might be possible to load them via conveyor belt/track that could fit in through a door way. then the cabin crew could clamp them in place.

i dont think you could load people well not non military people in the fashion shown above. there would be way too many problems with people doing silly things