Could protective barriers be the future of socially distant flying? While travel is currently at a standstill and scheduled flights are on pause, the plane industry is taking this time to question what the future of travel could look like and come up with safer solutions.
One Italian aviation design firm, Aviointeriors, has dreamed up what air travel could look like after the pandemic with social distancing front of mind. They have shared two airplane seat design concepts that could keep travelers safer if their seat neighbor coughs or sneezes.
The first concept, the “Janus” is a two-faced seat that could allow three passengers to be isolated and separated with a transparent shield. Passengers on the aisle and window seats would face forward, while the middle seat would face backward, a feature that has been seen before in some business cabins. But what elevates their proposed safety feature further is the use of the easy-to-clean shield, which they claim could protect passengers from “breath propagation”.
Their second design is a kit-level solution called Glassafe which could be implemented in as little as two months. This one doesn’t need any changes to a plane’s interiors but the transparent shields can be installed directly onto existing seats.