I am way in favor of this. Indeed, I have sometimes tried lying down on the floor (and letting my neighbors stretch out on the seats). I would even consider going in overhead luggage racks. I think they could have fold out beds. Or they could have seats that all go back at the same time so that eveyone is forced to lie down. Issue with getting out to go pee.

The crux of my proposal is to stack people three high so that they can lie down in coach but not take up any more floorspace than they do today.

The seats in Business Class fully recline, but Business Class is 5 to 10 times as expensive because there is all the wasted space -- after the seats in Business Class recline, there is a ton of space under the seats and over the seats that is totally empty/wasted for most of the flight. Fold-down beds would only work in coach if one passenger agreed to lay on the floor, one agreed to stretch out on the seats, and the fold-down bed for the third came out of the wall at say the level of the headrests of the seatback.

For the "coffin-like hotels" in Japan, there is a hatch-like door on the end for privacy and people can get in and out at will to use the bathroom or shower.

Great idea! I can only imagine the hoops the aircraft manufacturers would have to jump through for the FAA. However, they have sleeping cars on trains which are as likely to crash.

Regarding crashOn takeoff/landing, the safest spots today are how the stewardesses sit -- with their back to the front of the plane. So if there is a crash, the force of impact is evenly distributed among their back/torso, triceps, and calves (i.e., the parts of their body that touch the seats). Compare with regular passengers, where the force of impact is 100% on that skinny seatbelt -- and the head gets flung forward. In the sleepers, the passengers would lie on their side at takeoff with their back/legs flush against the side of the "coffin" closest to the front of the plane. Passengers in coach sleepers at takeoff would be safer than the stewardesses. And the material used for noise insulation would also provide crash protection.

While in flight, people in sleepers would have some sort of restraining belt to wear. The sleepers would be safer than folks walking around or in the bathroom. And they would be marginally safer than people in seats because they would be protected from flying objects.

I can see the layout. Make the coffins hexagonal along thewalls of the plane, and have cenral bank of standard seats for people who will not have a bed. The honeycomb along the walls would also displace the overhead lockers which could be replaced by an empty half-hexagon with a rolling drawer... the 4th tier, the bottom tier, as hexagon will not be exactly side to side.

It can have a net on the ceiling to hold your carryon above your feet whilst you sleep.

Add to this a bank of showers in the back, so that people can sleep the night (say NY to tokyo) saturday night leaving. Sleep over the pole, get up and shower, dress and get off the plane in tokyo monday morning and go to work completely refreshed.

what about when it comes time to eat? or maybe you don't want to lie down for 14 hours? it definately needs to be something that can either be in a sitting or reclined position. also what about someone who is overweight, some airlines make an overweight person purchase two tickets since they take up two seats, but would an overweight person fit in your box? travel with your family, like to play cards or talk with them while in flight? you won't be able to see them if youre trapped in a little box. i think this is a good start but i really think that there has to be an option of sitting up or reclining such as in business class.

I would consider myself pro-choice on the idea of sleeper seats in coach (i.e., "coffins"). Perhaps half of the coach seats would be reconfigured into sleeper seats/coffins, the exact percentage depending on expected demand. So the folks that valued the capability to both sit up straight while eating AND also lie flat when sleeping would continue to pay the $5,000 round trip business fare from NY to London. Those on a more limited budget of $500 would now have the choice to sit up straight for the full flight (as they do today) or lie flat for the full flight in the new sleeper seats. Granted, if someone chose a sleeper seat, he would forego the opportunity to eat, play cards, or chat with friends. But some folks like myself would prefer to get that stuff out of the way before boarding the plane and simply spend 100% of the flight sleeping. This proposal is for US to Europe flights (or maybe redeye flights from LA to NY), so it's 7 - 10 hour flights not 14. Of course, sleeper seats/coffins would not appeal to the claustrophobic/overweight/families with lots of little kids/etc. -- they would likely prefer Business Class or old fashioned Coach. But simply because half the customers are not interested in this option does not mean that it will not be profitable. More choice is usually a good idea.

This "flying Pullman" concept was done on several U.S. airlines in the 1930's. I remember seeing a very interesting blurb on it a few years ago on a PBS program. I think it was the program on the DC-3. I forgot what series it was part of. I always wondered why the airlines got rid of this. It wasn't because the flights got shorter in time. There have ALWAYS been flights where people fly for 8 hours or more.

"Sleeper seats in coach" may be a perfect "why not" case -- a win for all stakeholders, no drawbacks, but the only issue is that the people with the power to implement it haven't thought of it yet.

"Soda fountains in fast food restaurants" is the epitome of "why not" -- when they moved the soda fountains from behind the cash register to out in the seating area (change to self-serve), all stakeholders won: the fast food restaurant held the price of a Coke constant and saved more on labor costs than they lost on the higher cost of giving away "all-you-can-drink" Coke, Coke sells more syrup, and the consumer gets to drink more Coke at the same price and doesn't have to wait for some unmotivated teenager behind the counter to fill his glass.

I actually tried to "model" a sleeping configuration. Seating, getting up, flight service, etc. would be a big problem. Besides, to accommodate the same number of passengers, Airlines have to crample the "beds" so tightly that we would immediately hear complaints about them from people who would want to go back to the seat system. The airlines would also make it more expensive than seats.

That would be great, but I think that the passengers should lie with their bodies aligned with the airplane (not perpendicular to the aisle). This would make it easier for getting up (every airplane needs to able to be evacuated in less than 90 seconds to be certified).Half of the airplane could be like this and half with regular chairs at the begining. I have made some calculations and considering that the passengers take their carry-on luggage with them inside of the "coffin", it is possible to put more people than on regular seats (higher seat-mile).Designing the seat belts would be a challenge.I also think that this would be good even for short flights...

spartha,Did you read the initial post?1. only some portion of the seats would be sleeper seats. so passengers would reserve either business class, coach class, or sleeper class. people who prefer coach continue to select coach, they are not inconvenienced at all by those who prefer sleeper seats. might want to have a sample sleeper seat in the airport so people could try them out. people who thought they were too cramped would simply choose coach and therefore not complain.2. the distance between the passenger's face and the top of the "coffin" would be exactly the same as the distance between the passenger's face in coach and the seatback immediately in front of him. hence the coffins would consume the same amount of cubic feet of occupancy space. and to think this through, when you're sleeping, you don't particularly notice whether the top of the cramped "coffin" is 12 inches from your face or 36 inches. so although it will be as cramped as a coach seat, many folks will only notice it for the 15 minutes before they fall asleep.3. people who want flight service would choose coach; people sleeping in the sleeper seats would not be offered flight service (another savings to the airlines i suppose).4. "getting up" or getting out of your sleeper seat would be no more difficult than getting out of the similarly styled hotels in Japan. of course, those who had bad backs or simply prefered coach, they would simply ride in coach and not be inconvenienced with the sleeper seats.