COVID-19 Impact: Future Of Flying May Have Seats With Sneeze-Partitions Like These

We already know that COVID-19 is going to change the way we live. From commuting outdoors to the way we work in our offices, everything’s going to change. And flying too won’t be the same.?

Factory Design

Some airliners in the US have decided to not let anyone sit in the middle seats to maintain social distancing. However, an air-travel design firm based out of London, Factory Design has a better take on helping passengers maintain social distancing while looking cool.

Reported first by FastCompany, They’ve replaced the seats with something they call ‘Isolate’ which is essentially a drop-in partition that sits on the middle seat, adding some protection to the passengers sitting next to each other.?

Peter Tennet, Director at Factory Design explains this concept, “We thought if that [middle] seat is going to be blocked out, why not make a positive feature for the passenger that adds value, rather than be seen as a negative.”?

The drop in partition also has a splittable to act ass a small station to keep your stuff on, or just rest arms with ease. Tennet also states that they’ve kept the design generic to be compatible with different kinds of seats across a variety of aircraft types. He explains, “The truth is that it may be too much of a challenge as seats vary in width and armrest detailing. However, it could be largely the same product, with adaptors.”

Factory Design

Installing it isn’t complicated either. It latches on the seat with the help of the lap belt. Moreover, the designers are working to make it flat-packable, so it can be easily stored when it is not being used.

Isolate is still in the development phase and a lot needs to go right before they’re ‘clear for takeoff’. We still don't know how effective they'll truly be in keeping passengers safe, but it will surely make passengers feel a bit more secure.

While it is not sure if or when we will get to see Isolate on aircrafts (considering many airliners won’t be looking to make huge purchases after suffering losses in the past few months) but the thought seems to be in the right direction.?