To: WSFAlist at keithlynch.net
Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2002 18:41:06 -0500
Subject: [WSFA] packing them in like sardines
From: ronkean at juno.com
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

On Thu, 21 Mar 2002 10:03:11 -0500 Steve Smith <sgs at aginc.net> writes:

> While I certainly see the attraction of this, somebody didn't check
> out the activities of the 9/11 hijackers just before 9/11.  Seems they
> got a "get out of hell free" card, and spent their last days getting
lap
> dances and such.
>

The story I got was that the 'terrorists' manual' which was found
recommended that terrorist cells in the U.S. try to throw off suspicion
by not having beards and engaging in dissolute practices such as drinking
in stripper bars.

> That said, I've always been partial to the idea of replacing the
> seats and overhead storage compartments on airplanes with those "seats"

> used in the dangle- your- feet- in- the- air roller coasters.  Instead
> of having everybody shove and jostle their way onto the plane and try
> to stow their luggage, the passengers would sit down and get strapped
> in in the boarding area.  The seats would then slide on an overhead
rail
> into the plane.  No fuss, no muss, no shoving, no fights over storage
> space. Since you don't really need an aisle in this arrangement, the
> airlines could probably fit in more seats.

Military transport aircraft probably have ways of efficiently packing in
a much larger number of troops on the aircraft than could be seated on a
conventional airliner of the same size.  But I don't think that civilian
passengers would stand for being packed much tighter than they now are.
Also, the airliners have to accommodate babies, small children, adults of
a wide range of sizes and people with disabilities and special needs.

Then there is the matter of payload capacity.  You could fit more people
in the passenger cabin by packing them in like sardines, but would the
plane be able to carry the weight?  Each passenger comes with, say, 50 to
100 pounds of baggage, so more passengers means more baggage.  When a
plane is loaded, they count the passengers and weigh their checked
baggage to estimate the total weight of passengers, carry-ons, and
checked passenger baggage.  Then they subtract that weight from the
payload capacity to determine how much freight and airmail can also be
loaded, and if sufficient freight and airmail is available to be loaded,
they proceed to fill the hold to near the weight capacity.

To the extent they can manage it, by juggling schedules, reservations,
overbooking, stand-bys, freight, and airmail, the airlines already seek
to pack the planes to near the payload capacity.

Ron Kean

.

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