Idk why everyone acts like this would be some sort of travesty. If higher seating capacity through innovative cabine layouts bring down cost and carbon emissions per passenger, I'm all for it. I'm not flying for the experience but to get to my destination. If you all care so much about spacious seating, just book business class.
You don't design for the flight; you design for the evacuation. We learned that the hard way decades ago. This looks like it forgot all those lessons paid for by people's lives.
Adding onto this, the cabin design in OP’s post looks like it would 100% break your legs if the plane were to ever crash. It would absolutely suck to be in a plane crash and have your legs broken.
Then just add additional emergency exits to the plane. Except for a higher total number of passengers I don't see how this layout would significantly slow down evacuation otherwise. Though I'm by no means an expert.
People's legs being in that position would negate what is considered a safe evacuation. Modern regulations stipulate that you have 90 seconds to get everyone off the plane safely with 50% of the emergency exits blocked. That's why you're required to be seated completely upright with your feet on the floor during takeoff and landing. So you can stand up immediately if anything goes wrong and you need to evacuate.
This accident is one of the reasons why that rule exists. We forget these things:
"It was then, just 90 seconds after the plane came to a stop, that the entire passenger cabin exploded in flame. An unstoppable wall of fire swept forward from the back of the plane, consuming everything in its path, painting every window in brilliant orange. Firefighters tried to fight it, but there was nothing they could do. Captain Cameron, who jumped from the window just seconds before the explosion, would be the last to leave the plane alive."
Your legs would obviously not be in that position during takeoff and landing. This picture was clearly taken with the seat reclined to show the relatively comfortable seating position during the flight. If you search for any other pictures that are not cropped like this one, you can see that there's still some space below the seat to put your feet down.
And whenever I disembark from a plane not once have I felt like getting out of my seat is the limiting factor for why it takes so long. The bottlenecks are always the limited number of exits and aisles that every passenger has to squeeze through.
Edit: actually I found a 3d render of the proposed cabine layout here it looks tight but otherwise pretty standard if you ask me, except for the two levels of course.
"would not be in that position"?!? What version of reality are you smoking where these seats are gonna freaking move to vertical?
Edit: on further inspection, you're gonna go full ATM if you sit upright. You're so low to the floor to accommodate the upper decker that your knees would be in your chest cavity if they were on the floor. Frack every bit of this idea in the neck, sideways, with a screwdriver.
Have you ever been in an airliner? "upright an locked in their vertical positions" - ever heard that? Putting goddamned laz-e-boys in the middle of an airliner is gonna lead to corpses in the event of a catestrophoc accident. (not that it would stop the airline industry, if it could)
I found a 3d render of the proposed cabine layout here it looks tight but otherwise pretty standard if you ask me, except for the two levels of course.
The moment of inertia on that upper deck is going to snap those seats like a twig. While I'm sure there's airline execs foaming at the mouth and lobbyists pushing wheelbarrows of money, I'll drive before I get in one of those.
Also, more passengers plus less overhead bin storage means less cargo hold capacity, meaning air cargo (a valuable income stream, particularly on transcontinental or transoceanic flights, where the widebodies would be most used) would be cut back by more checked bags. And more discontent by pax that now have to pay for checked bag fees.
Your legs would obviously not be in that position during takeoff and landing. This picture was clearly taken with the seat reclined to show the relatively comfortable seating position during the flight. If you search for any other pictures that are not cropped like this one, you can see that there's still some space below the seat to put your feet down.
And whenever I disembark from a plane not once have I felt like getting out of my seat was the limiting factor for why it takes so long. The bottlenecks are always the limited number of exits and aisles that every passenger has to squeeze through.
I'm not even particularly claustrophobic, and I am also very aware that this is unlikely to ever pass FAA inspection, and yet I still inevitably start breathing heavier every time I see this photo. It's just so terrifying.