NEW YORK, NY – To stay competitive in the increasingly comfy world of business-class travel, the brass at Continental Airlines knew they had to ditch their stodgy old recliners and install seats that transform into flat beds. But to stay solvent, the bean counters warned, the airline needed to maintain the number of passengers crammed into its cabins. And beds take up more space than chairs. Right?

Not necessarily. B/E Aerospace, the design firm Continental hired to develop its new loungers, dreamed up a seat called the Diamond—a 25-inch-wide high- altitude throne that converts into a 6-foot, 6-inch bed. And they promised to fit just as many of these larger seats in the same space.

That would seem an impossible equation, but the solution was elegant in its simplicity. "The real innovation," says Glenn Johnson, B/E's design director, "came in the configuration." Instead of lining up the seats in straight rows, his team staggered them. So when a passenger kicks back into the lie-flat position, the foot of the bed slides into the space between the two seats in front. But don't worry: A wraparound shell ensures you won't have someone's feet in your face.

Copyright 2009 Condé Nast Digital. All rights reserved. From http://www.wired.com. By Dave Demerjian.
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