Economy Seat
Advanced ergonomics in the economy cabin
Rethinking Comfort in Economy
Nowhere is comfort harder to deliver than in the economy cabin. Every improvement has to be won without losing a single seat, and yet no other seat asks so much of its occupant: nine, ten, twelve hours at a time.
Designed for Helium Aircraft Seating, this seat takes a different approach. Conventional seats recline backwards, into the space of the passenger behind. This one slides forwards and down within a fixed hoop structure, delivering what is often called guilt-free recline.
Recline, reconsidered
As the seat reclines, the backrest angle is balanced by a tilt in the seat pan, cradling the passenger rather than simply tipping them back. The relationship between the two angles is informed by research from by Goossens & Snijders, which defines the optimum balance for comfort.
The headrest follows a vertical path throughout the recline. This does two things. It supports the weight of the head as the passenger settles back, and it allows a deeper recline within the same footprint, so comfort improves without adding a centimetre of pitch.
Because the hoop never moves, it can carry a larger screen. Here, a 16-inch display.
Weight is everything
On a widebody aircraft, every gram saved is multiplied hundreds of times over. A saving of 2 kg per seat could remove as much as 800 kg from a Boeing 777. That is 24 to 32 kg of fuel for every hour in the air. For a long-haul 777, that adds up to 100 to 150 tonnes of fuel a year, or 300 to 470 tonnes of CO₂.
Engineering weight out of the structure is the seat engineer's domain. As designers, our job is to question everything that hangs off it. So we removed the bifold tray table. We reduced the aesthetic shroud to its essentials, cutting weight while giving airlines more freedom to make the seat their own. And we simplified the structure required for head impact compliance. All with a close eye on what makes a seat comfortable to be in.