It’s one of the most uncomfortable experiences in the world: sitting/sleeping in economy on a long-haul flight. For the longest time, seats for the economy class work on a simple hinge mechanism that only lets you recline your seat up to around five inches. Factorydesign hopes to change that with its new Twister Seat concept.
Creator and joint creative director of Factorydesign made a concept that imitates the human spine and how we twist to get our bodies comfortable. It even has ribs for its vertical backbone that will shift as you shift in your seat. So, yes, if you want to sleep on your side, you can with this seat.
“From your shoulders to your thighs, the seat follows your profile as you move,” White said.
If you’ve found the position you want, you can press a button to hold that position. Another press of that control button will reset it to neutral. This seat is also meant to help avoid deep vein thrombosis, which is becoming an issue with longer flights offered by airlines.
“You wouldn’t get a pressure point under the thigh, which would be a significant health benefit,” White said.
And the great thing for airlines is it occupies the same amount of room as a standard economy seat, which is great if they want to adopt this concept.
“We see this as a long-haul product. This is all about duration seating,” White added. “There has been considerable debate about economy class seating in the media, and many concepts which don’t actually seem to have considered the needs of the passenger. This design is completely centered around improving the passenger journey experience.”
