“If you thought low-cost air travel couldn’t get any more bleak,” reports Oliver Wainwright, “then Airbus has a treat in store for you.”
The seating design, filed as “SEATING DEVICE COMPRISING A FORWARD-FOLDABLE BACKREST” at the European Patent Office and the US Patent Office by Airbus Operations, describes “a seating device with reduced bulk, for example in an aircraft.”
For example indeed!
“The seating device comprises a backrest which describes circular translational movement toward the front and upwards of the device when the seating device is brought to the retracted configuration.”
