Now it doubles.
The designer of the much-derided double-decker plane seats – which spawned a thousand memes – has now rolled out a prototype for first class.
“Now that we know the economics work, and now that it’s moving forward, we thought, ‘Why don’t we go to the other end of the cabin and do a business class/first class hybrid?’” , Chaise Lounge founder Alejandro Núñez Vicente told CNN. at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Germany, where he is displaying his company’s two-level sky chair.
Its original coach-class layout – which features one row above another with the upper level accessed by stairs – was designed to give passengers seated lower down more legroom as there was no no seats directly in front of them. This forced Núñez Vincente to remove the overhead luggage compartment.
The First Class iteration of the Visionary, dubbed “High Class”, is essentially the same concept, except with a slightly different presentation. While the economy version has three standard seats, this premium configuration only has one seat in the lower row and two in the upper row like a sofa, allowing for much more space and comfort.
Núñez Vicente said he wanted to elevate air travel by creating “more space for more seats on the plane” while providing “an even better experience than is offered today in business or first class.” .
Specifically, he envisioned the lower seat as an enclosed cabin with a spacious footwell in which passengers can extend their legs beneath the upper level – perfect for the solo traveler. Conversely, the upper level, which is more like a sofa, was designed for people traveling with an accompanied person as well as single travelers who need more space.
The lack of a luggage compartment may seem disconcerting, but Núñez Vicente says this is offset by the roomier footwells, which provide all the storage space a passenger could need.
“The real estate you get is way bigger than you would get in any business class or first class,” said the entrepreneur, who founded Chaise Lounge as a 21-year-old student, inspired by economical flights which did not adapt to his size of 6 feet 2 inches.
Unfortunately, its economical prototype became a subject of ridicule, with critics considering the layout claustrophobic and strange.
“A new hell has just fallen” wrote author Amber Sparks on X in response to a CNN article on design. Fellow writer Kaz Weida tweeted: “I’ll come back to comment on this once my claustrophobia allows me to breathe again.”
This is because the design of the top row is such that passengers will only have 4.92 feet of space between the seats and the top of the plane, making it difficult for them to get up to exit.
Meanwhile, a Reddit user claimed that people sitting in the lower quadrant would break both knees at the same time if they encountered turbulence.
However, Vincente doesn’t let haters intimidate him, saying, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.”
“Most of the things that have changed the world are generally the work of radical people who have a crazy idea – like Steve Jobs with the iPhone,” insisted the big boss of the headquarters, who affirms that the “big players” are interested by the economy class design.
Núñez Vicente says he is also eager for the “high class” to take off and exclaims: “We are going to put our reputation on the line again and see how it goes.” »
The visionary is not the first to design a seat that ostensibly saves space without sacrificing comfort.
Earlier this year, an Italian aerospace company unveiled a convertible “sofa bed” style business class seat, which it said could transform the face of air travel.
New York Post
