1 HAVE BEEN WATCHING With interest the controversy in The
Times correspondence columns about the discomfort suffered by tourist class passengers in air liners— especially tall ones, who have no room for their elbows or their feet. Lord Douglas considers these criticisms exaggerated, par- ticularly in connection with BEA whose average flight takes little over an hour's flying time. But it is not such flights that sufferers are worried about: it is the long hauls, to America, to Africa, or to Asia. Even three- or four-hour flights can be agonisingly uncomfortable when there is no room to stretch one's legs. A point that has often occurred to me: what is the technical objection to hollowing-out the floor space beneath seats so that the passenger would get (as he does get, sitting in the back seat of some cars) room to stretch his feet below floor level? I realise that this would be difficult to mass-produce, as different air- lines have different seating arrangements; but is there any insuperable obstacle in the
way of the manufacturers doing the job for an airline whose seating requirements are known in advance? It would certainly attract custom and goodwill on any route where there are night flights—just as that double-decker aircraft, with the bar down- stairs, attracted custom and goodwill— however uneconomical it may have been in other respects.
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