Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2002 18:50:33 -0500
From: Steve Smith <sgs at aginc.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Fwd: [rec.humor.funny] Solutions for hijackings
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

Ted White wrote:

> Assuming for a single instant that you're serious about this, consider the
> added weight required for the mechanisms used to move those seats around,
> and the added weight of the seats themselves -- now effectively rigid carts
> -- and you'll understand why this idea has Not One Chance In Hell....

I'm every bit as serious as the author of the original suggestion (nude
flight attendants).

Much more fun to think of reasons why something like this *would* work,
rather than why it *wouldn't* work.  Anybody can do that.

As to weight, the design of aircraft seats hasn't changed in decades.
You'd be amazed at how light current carbon composite materials can be.
Also, motors designed for 400 Hz 3 phase current (what normal aircraft
equipment runs on) are *tiny*.  Also remember, we're removing the
overhead bins (replaced by under-seat bins) and the flooring (nobody's
walking on it.)

Main problem is that they'd be seriously uncomfortable for long
flights.  For long flights, we could take a plan from those ultra-cheap
Japanese hotels, where your "room" is a little box just big enough to
lie down in.  Again, you load them up in the terminal and use a forklift
to load the nicely "boxed" passengers onto the plane.  Biggest problem I
see here is that I like to look out the window.  Can't do that (although
the Japanese "hotels" have TV).

--
Steve Smith                                           sgs at aginc.net
Agincourt Computing                            http://www.aginc.net
"Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense."