How engineering lets economy airplane seats offer more legroom in a small space

HAMBURG, Germany - Many airline passengers associate seat pitch, or the distance between a point on a seat and the same point on the seat ahead, with legroom, and 30 inches of pitch is fairly standard on many U.S. domestic flights.

As I was getting ready to come to the Aircraft Cabin Interiors Expo, I expected to see that most of the innovations would probably be in luxury seating.

While it is true that differences in economy layouts are pretty minor, little engineering tweaks can go a long way to making things more comfortable in the cheap seats.

At the Collins Aerospace display, I saw how small design choices can have a big impact on space.

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“It’s all about getting living space into the seat. You want to get hard spots in the seat as high and as far forward as you can,” Alastair Hamilton, vice president for sales and marketing of interiors and aircraft seating at Collins Aerospace told me.

More ergonomic design allows seats to use more or less the standard economy footprint while giving passengers more knee and elbow room.

“You start with the width, obviously. The width of the fuselage of the aircraft, it is what it is. And you need an aisle, it is what it is. So you get as close to the sidewall as possible,” Hamilton said, but added that there was more possibility for legroom than shoulder room in the main cabin.

Speaking while sitting in the Collins Meridian seat, I was surprised that at even 29 inches of pitch, my knees had plenty of space (although I am pretty short at 5’7”). More noticeable than knee space however, the back of the seat ahead of me felt a little close to my face at that distance.

Meridian seats are common on American Airlines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines and JetBlue, so many passengers will be familiar with how they feel.

Hamilton also pointed out that travelers get a comfort boost because the seat cushion rests on a fabric diaphragm similar to wheelchair seats, rather than a hard shelf, which means the whole thing has a little more give.

Collins’ Meridian Plus seat was also on display in a 31-inch pitch configuration, but felt even roomier.

That model features a sliding cushion as part of the recline mechanism, which is more ergonomic and helps reduce how much the reclined seat back encroaches on a passenger’s neighbor to the rear.

“You get a bit more support, you’re less likely to slide off the foot of the thing,” Hamilton said, but quickly acknowledged that the extra comfort that comes from the Meridian Plus design isn’t likely to be available on short-haul flights because of airline economics.

“It costs a little more and weighs a little more,” he said, and passengers are less likely to recline in general on shorter flights.

Zach Wichter is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in New York. You can reach him at zwichter@usatoday.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How designers are making tight economy seats roomier on airplanes