Just when you thought that air travel couldn’t get any more inconvenient:
Air travel is being overhauled with a new aircraft design which plans to seat passengers facing each other in rows.
The controversial design is intended to save space and money and could see 50 per cent more passengers packed on to each plane.
Howard Guy, director of the UK company Design Q, acknowledges that some people will not be happy with the plan, but says they will be able to pay less for any inconvenience.
‘Having passengers face each other is not an ideal situation,’ he said. ‘But this will see increased revenue for the operator and more economical tickets for the passenger – so by keeping both happy, this concept makes an attractive alternative…
Mr Guy said: ‘Military personnel are used to travelling in that way and have had a positive reaction to the idea.
Military personnel are also accustomed to long hours, low pay, bad food and the prospect of people occasionally shooting at you.
Which, for civilian air travelers, three out of four ain’t bad.
I raely got bad food in the Military. That includes AF, Navy and Army chow halls too. Loved C-rats too. Ham and Lima beans. Ham and Eggs. Meals Rejected by Ethiopians were OK. The Ham Loaf wasn’t spectacular, but edible.
I didn’t much care for the accomodations on a Herky Bird, but it was livable. But then, I jumped the pond twice on the military version of the good old DC-6 in the late 50s and early 60s.
N0 one shot at me, but if Ivan had decided to come over for Beer and Brats, life would have gotten very interesting for AFBrats like myself. It would have been a long drive to the French Coast, or Spain.
Looking back, those trips on MATS transports inspired me to become a military pilot (although I washed medically). Trips on the airlines these days merely inspire me to stay home, or drive. I don’t even bother with airline food.
Ham & Lima Beans? Could gag a maggot!
TWA’s Lockeed Constellations had the best first class seats. (The blue flames spewing from the exhausts were always a comfort).
I liked walking out to the plane and climbing the stairs. (You could sort of up close eye-ball the big silver bird before climbing in).
Pan Am and American had better-than-average food. (And the martinis were free).
Yeah, now I drive or don’t go.
Loved ‘em!
I remember the flame coming from the exhaust when I was a kid. Later, when I was in the Naval Reserve, we flew from Nashville to Norfolk on the Navy’s version of the DC 6. Saw it then. We knew that flame kept the pilot cool, and we all know we want a cool pilot.
They used to bring the kids up to the cockpit on those long flights to Germany. After we got out of Goose Bay they would start. I pointed to something on the Flight Engineer’s console and asked what it was. He said “that’s a Chinese Television.” Looking back, I wonder how many times he gave out that answer.
Considerations for emergency situations should squash this plan. People sitting sideways in a situation with hard braking, blown tire, ran off runway? Not good.
And think of the aisle space now cluttered with everyone’s feet instead of just the occasional large body in the aisle seat. Flight attendants would be overjoyed, fer shure…
George V.
Quartermaster … You are so right about today’s commercial airliners. “Trips on the airlines these days merely inspire me to stay home, or drive.”
What bothers me most about the seat configuration above, is not that I’d have to stare at my fellow passengers. Sometimes I enjoy that, since I’m a lifelong observer of other human beings in airports and other public places. It’s the seats themselves, which appear to be horribly uncomfortable, like the chairs in today’s schoolrooms, which are not for the faint of heart, or arthritic of limb.
Marianne
I hate to fly. I think I’d hate in more in something like that.
I’m with George V on this one. Safety factor alone should quash this. Had a Continental 737 run off the runway here in Denver (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/12/20/national/main4680072.shtml) in December, last year. Some of the passengers said there was lots of pushing and shoving, even one guy stepping over other passengers to get out. Can’t imagine having to get out of a plane in an emergency with seats arraigned like that.
Yeah, it’s not so much what could happen to the AC, but how my fellow sardine can occupants would react. So many people are undisciplined, to the least.
Considerations for emergency situations should squash this plan. People sitting sideways in a situation with hard braking, blown tire, ran off runway? Not good.
Exactly. Can you imagine the back/neck problems that would develop just from normal landings in San Diego?
I had a island hopper transpac in a webseat configured C-141. We had lots of room on the SD-Hawaii segment because there were only 20 of us. However, the plane was so cold the juice in my box lunch froze.
We picked up a bunch of marines in Hawaii and from then on it was impossible to move. Most everyone one had their knees interlocking with the person across the aisle from them, and shoulders rubbing against each other. On the upside, the temperature only went down to the 60′s for the following segments.
Thank god for the 4 hour refueling stops in Guam and Oki where you could stretch and take care of business.
It was possibly the most uncomfortable 24 hours of my life.
I heard a ‘nam story about a Krait (one of the world’s most venomous snakes, being bitten was called the Asian two step, get bit, take two steps and die) found frozen to death in a C-130.
Kraits were an ornery sort of reptile under most circumstances. During Operation Market Time, Mr. Charlie would catch a Krait, and nail his tail to the keel of a sampan, so when the sailor checking the sampan would lift the floor boards, he would meet a rather irritated snake face to face.
Give it time, they may install hand holds from the ceiling for standing passengers. Fit more in that way…
I first saw this picture when a commentor on a FlightGlobal article linked a pic on my blog showing C-17 “airline” seating.
I don’t think anyone is really considering this layout, but rather using it as an intellectual exercise to take a look at what else can be done “outside the box” of conventional seating arrangements, since everyone already hates those.
If it were adopted, it would only work on very short haul feeder lines, 30-60 minutes. But again, I think this was more an exercise than a proposal.
Agree, XBrad, as in: Exactly WHICH airline would be the first to actually go into debt to shell out hard cash for ac w. that configuration–or would they all draw straws?
Wife and I flew from Tampa to Chicago on Southwest a few years back, back when the bulkhead seats faced rearward. The entire trip was a bouncing roller-coaster ride as a front extended the entire country. The crew tried their best to find calm air, but there was none to be had. Many sick people, and facing backwards we had the opportunity to watch everyone go into major panic-facial-mode with every juke of the plane, which was about every 90 seconds. Seemed a very long flight.
I, too, have flown SWA in those old rear facing seats, from New Hampshire to Chicago/MDW, thankfully the flight wasn’t too bumpy. In general, though, flying while seated facing sideways or backwards doesn’t affect me much. I often fly in a little 9-seat King Air between Chicago and Springfield and their seating config is two sets of four seats facing each other, with one in the way back on a “commode” flying sideways.
The real headache is legroom, you keep bumping knees with the person seated across from you when trying to cross one’s legs, for example. In my world, fellow travelers are always in business attire and you find yourself looking out the window, nose-down in work, staring at the ceiling, etc., trying *not* to look at the woman traveler facing you doing the aforementioned activity when she’s NOT dressed like how Hillary Clinton prefers…
Just want to thank all of you for making me look forward to the flight to Bali for SNO’s wedding next year.
ROA-ORD 2:03 ETE, ORD-SIN 22:13 ETE, SIN-DPS 2:30 ETE
Hopefully they will still be serving liquor on flights when you make those. Just to be safe lay in some supplies of you own. Oops! Silly 4 oz. liquid ban strikes again…..Thanks, Bin Laden.
OldT6, I wonder if they will let me aboard with a 30 day supply of Ambian. LOL
Why not talk SNO into having his wedding is a saner location, say Fairbanks.
QM, yea verily, Fairbanks in Jan might be more condusive to my good will than Bali in May. However, it is the Senior Chief’s wedding and I am merely an old, retired O-6. Besides, his intended is a deligtful Japaneese lady and I will pay almost any price to see him tamed somewhat. He needs an influence which will move him from the right of Attila to mid-line Attila.
xairboss/
That’s some hazardous duty you’ve been Shanghai’d into, old hoss. But that’s what all that O-6 experience has prepared you for, right?
BTW, I suppose you’ve already checked out all the Bali golf courses–proper msn planning and all that. Got your Tee-times yet? 
Hope you manage to suffer thru….
vx, have you checked the cost of oversize and overweight luggage lately? $250 for oversize to Asia and $150 for overweight. I’d rather spend it on booze.
Does the Senior Chief follow orders?
I can understand the desire to spend the oversize tariffs on booze instead. It might drive me to drink if Attila were my son too
QM, of course Senior Chief’s follow orders; from Master Chiefs. All others, including 0-6s are below them. Surprised that you didn’t learn that in the Nav. LOL.
Senior Chiefs do tend to be a bit Atilla, even when wearing dress whites and saying, “Sir”.
xairboss/
Can’t you just rent? I know a Canadian Ins Exec from Vancouver who flies all over with his wife and both are avid golfers–they’ve found out that renting takes care of that hassle and they score almost as well as with their own custom clubs. (shows you that it’s NOT always the equip.) My guy claims he wouldn’t do it any other way as it tot. elim. cost & hassle factor. Plus you STILL get to apply the $ to the booze–only now can justify it as reward for all the exercise you’ll get on the links.
VX, if I so much as hinted that I wanted to play around, er, a round, she who must be obeyed, would have me rooming with the famous Bali temple monkeys for the rest of our stay. I’m a complete idiot but i’m not stupid. LOL
Years ago, I flew in a turboprop commuter airliner in which the seats in the forward cabin had this design. Bet the spacing was a little wider than what is now being contemplated, though.
We all know that the airlines are pushing toward the Ultimate Arrangement…shove the passengers in like a Tokyo subway. No seats, just passengers packed in so tight that they can’t move.
The day the FAA gets leadership that isn’t bought & paid for by the airlines, it will go VERY hard with the commercial carriers.
That’s exactly what I was thinking… subway.
Bou/
Or maybe they’ll stuff everyone in one of those beehive-like single-person “sleep-tubes” one can rent overnight in those special hotels in Japan whose interiors look like one huge honeycomb. If outfitted in aircraft all those hollow cylinders ought to do wonders for aircraft bouyancy if they have to ditch.
I’ve come back repeatedly to look at that picture and find the silver lining. As someone mentioned, there is definitely more leg room for you tall folks, of which I am not one. Also, I think this takes care of the problem of the wider folks needing two seats. No squishing between people who needed to buy two seats. Elimination of getting stuck in the middle seat appears to have occurred.
However, this picture is no where close to reality. First, that plane is clean. Make it dingy and nasty with gray dirty seats and it’s closer. Second, the seats won’t be that far apart. They’re going to be close together to pack them in… because that picture right there shows first class. Cattle car will literally have everyone shoved side by side… and that’s when I will officially ride Amtrak everywhere.
I love Amtrak. The autotrain from Orlando to DC rocks.
Once AGAIN, the practical side of Bou gets down to the nuts& bolts of the nitty-gritty of reality. To borrow Chris Parkes’ phrase, just how WILL the “Amistad Class” lodgings look after 10-20,000hrs of flight-time?
Bou/
Or maybe they’ll stuff everyone in one of those beehive-like single-person “sleep-tubes” one can rent overnight in those special hotels in Japan whose interiors look like one huge honeycomb. If outfitted in aircraft all those hollow cylinders ought to do wonders for aircraft bouyancy if they have to ditch.
I used to really enjoy flying and grab-assing with the Stews…but now my arms just get tired…most discomforting. Best
PS,Hey Quartermaster…are you flippen nuts?…you enjoyed “ham and lima” beans…I suppose you liked “beans and balls” (a/k/a meatballs and beans in tomato sauce) as well?…the mind reels.
Snake/
QM and I must be blood brothers on that score–I liked it ALL. Guys in the Squadron used to joke I’d be the only POW in history to gain weight. Nah, one said, they wouldn’t keep me long enough for that to happen, said they’d fly me back in back seat of Mig-21 trainer and eject me over the field bound and gagged hand and foot with a note pinned to my chest that said: “Take him back and keep him, PLEASE–we’re running out of swill!” LOL.
My father was in AF food service. In Germany they had to put a nominal amount of Cs on the chow line every month. Of course, no one took them. He would usually bring home about 3-5 cases a month. We’d eat some, and give others away. We were also supposed to keep a 5 day food supply in case Ivan got the tourist bug and we had to bug out. We normally kept 5 cases on hand for our supply.
I learned to like Ham and Eggs and Ham and Lima beans from my father. I would normally try something once. My mother and two younger brothers hated both ham and eggs and ham and lima beans. My father and I would just say “more for us!” and chow down.
I didn’t much care for spaghets and meatballs, but would eat it occasionally. Funny thing, most of my former military friends liked ham and lima beans too.
Too bad Cs are gone. WE got MREs these days – also known as “Meals rejected by Ethiopians.” My daughter sad “Meals rejected by everybody.” I told here that couldn’t possibly be true since I liked most of them.
I, too, liked the “Ham & Eggs, Chopped”, and also the “Pork Slices”. I never cared for the Ham & Lima beans, but the Hot Dogs & beans were tolerable.
The Holy Grail, though, was the Pound Cake. It was not only really GOOD, but had an inordinate amount of bartering power..
Pound Cake was GOLD!
One interesting dside note. The Beans and franks in MREs have a note not to eat when flying. Any guesses as to why that would be
AW1Tim, QM/
Either of you still have that little tooth-like folding can-opener they used to issue?I kept mine attached to my dog-tags chain–has a little hole in the corner just for that purpose–saved me from starvation amidst plenty a couple of times. (And a remarkably easy and efficient little tool to use, too–made a believer out of me–as I was highly dubious first time I ever eyed it.)
VX,
I still have one hanging from my dog tags, same as you ol’ friend. It not only works as advertised, but is the perfect tool for your weapon, and many an assorted job.
You never know when that original GI multi-tool will come in handy.
VX: that little tool was called the P-38 can opener. I think everybody saved theirs as it ws just so unbelievably useful.
AW1: for real bartering power, the enterprising would pick up all the discarded instant soup packets and cubes. Later in the evening, we’d get about 6 helmets, fill them with water and put them over a fire or in it. When the water was hot, dump in the soup packets. The smell would travel over the area and pretty soon, we had people wandering up asking if they could trade something for a cup full. We charged officers double the prevailing rate for a canteen cup full. And, they’d pay.
QM, I had my first MRE last week. My basic reaction was: GREASY! The consensus of my fellow travelers was that the entrees were so-so (a couple were pretty bad), but the desserts/snacks were delish. I don’t know about bartering the pound cake, but every dessert I saw was certainly valuable. The chewing gum after 5 minutes of use was atrocious, though!
Troops at Bragg found out years ago that a little Tony Chachere’s cajun seasoning made MREs an almost gormet delight. The commissary at Bragg even carried it.
One of the staples in just about every Care Package I send has a large bottle of Tabasco (or similar) sauce from Costco. I’ve never cared for it, but seems the troops on balance love it, and add it to darn near everything.
And, if the recipient doesn’t like it, it makes for good barter material!
Any Cajun will tell you that with a bit of lemon and some tabasco sauce, you can eat most anything that walks, crawls, swims, or flies. Just make sure it says, “Made in New Iberia, La.” or “Made on Avery Island, La.”
The MRE pound cake isn’t nearly as good as the C-rats version. There was a lot to like about Cs vs MREs.
VX
I haven’t been without a P-38 (John Wayne to you navy and Marine types) since the 7th grade when used one for the first time. That was in 1966. I took a C-rat to school for lunch. My classmates thought that was absolutely the coolest thing going. Bad thing was, an 11th grade girl had to show me how to use the thing. That wasn’t the coolest thing going among my mates. They razzed me good, but still wanted to steal my C-rat. Can’t remember which one it was.
I saw a box of P-38s at Uncle Bob’s Outdoors in Parkersburg, WV, about 10 years ago, and bought several. Gave one to my Highway Superintendent, and one to the Common Pleas Judge, who were both ‘nam marines. They never kept up with theirs.
The way the seats are on that mock up, it seems to me that the space is used far LESS efficiently than normal seating.
What gets to me is that I have better leg room, and more creature comforts on the Trailways bus and Amtrak then I do on the airlines these days.
I dead serious about this. The bus from Where I live in Maine, down to Boston takes 3 hours & 15 minutes. It tales me the same amount of time to fly down there, what with a 40 minute drive to Portland, the wait in line for security, boartding, departure, arrival and deplaning. I kid you not.
Concord Trailways buses up here are amazing. the inside has the exact same overhead bins and controls as the airlines do now. When you get on, they give you a bottle of spring water, a bag of pretzel snacks, and a set of headphones. The terminal at Portland also has free Green Mountain coffee, and free local newspapers.
Onboard, they show a movie on the trip down, with monitor screens for about every 4 rows, so no trouble watching. You can listen to it on your headset, which plugs into the seatback in front of you, or choose one a four music channels instead. You also have a folding try-table and a coffee holder.
Seriously, it’s a nice trip, and from my place to Boston South Station is $52.00 round-trip. I couldn’t drive there and back for that amount (gas, tolls, and parking).
I’ve also ridden Amtrak to both Washington DC, Salt Lake City, and Syracuse, and it was a very comfortable trip, even in coach.
Seriously, the only time I will fly commercial anymore is if I am going overseas, or have to absolutely, no-kidding, be there ASAP.
Respects,
Yeah, I took AMTRAK from Norfolk to Alexandria, Virginia last year. A very pleasant hour and a bit, didn’t have to hassle with traffic on Hwy 95 or any of the usual airport nonsense. First class upgrade was still a trifle (probably because of the heavy subsidies). Still, I’d do it again.
I don’t know what train you were riding there, gracious host. First, the train doesn’t go from Norfolk to Alex — you have to drive to NN and park your car in an unlit, unfenced, unpatrolled lot in one of the most crime infested cities in the region. Next, the hour “and a bit”? My definition of “a bit” doesn’t cover the schedule extra 2+30 (for a 3+25 total), and certainly doesn’t cover the more routine 4+15 total.
I’m spoiled — lived in Germany, where they have an excellent train system, but not nearly as good as the French TGV system. People look at trains and think that because it isn’t practical to ride from Dallas to Denver, or NY to Miami, then there is no future for HS trains in the US. We need to look at trip lengths of under 300 miles — Detroit to Chicago, B’ham to Atlanta, Raleigh to DC — where a 180 MPH train WILL get people out of their cars, and destroy air travel on that segment (just as it has done from Brussels and Lyon to Paris). Build train hubs, preferrably right at the hub airports — make the commuter feed to O’Hare on trains, from a spider network across the Midwest — as far as MSP, Des Moines, Cincinatti (via Indianapolis), STL. Same thing at DFW, from SAT, Houston, Tulsa and Wichita (via OKC).
But it will never happen here, so that’s why the post retirement plan (well, at least until last September
) includes six months a year in a nice farmhouse in Bourgogne. 1+45 on the TGV to the City of Lights. No parking, no dents, no hassle. Wine enroute, both ways. Nice room at the French Officers Club. C’est la vie!
I wish we could figure out a way to make the economics work for high speed rail. Now if we wanted to blow some big bucks that might be a stimulus project I could get interested in. But who would run and figure out how to make money doing so post the big build would seem to be a problem with no good solution. I dread anytime I have to fly commercially. By the time I get through the nonsense of taking my damn shoes off and practically half undressing to go through the detector (if I’m going through a detector why do I have to take everything off beforehand? I’m so enraged at the whole thing I am in no mood for being stuffed in a middle seat with my knees banging on the fold down tray I’m wishing I just driven wherever the hell I am going.
Relaxing on the train where I can mosey up to the bar car when the urge hits seems like a nice alternative.
What I enjoyed about AMTRAK was that I could bring my own bourbon. I always pack a flask in my knapsack. I head to the snack car, buy a single mini bottle and ask for a glass of ice, get a bag of something salty, and head back to my seat. I stash the mini bottle for emergency use and pour me a nice drink from the flask, then sit back and watch the scenery.
FWIW, AMTRAK actually shows a profit in the North East, and the “Down Easter” service from Portland to Boston has had a continuous increase in riders since it was set up about 10 years ago or so.
The trick is convincing people to leave their cars behind and vacation by train. The prices are reasonable, when compared to traveling by car and staying at motels along the way, etc. However, it is less convenient, inthat you go where the train goes, but hey… I’m at an age where I can do that.
I agree with you on the vacation by train idea. One of the best trips I ever took was from West Palm Beach to Seattle by Amtrak. It took 4 days and three different trains, but it beat the heck out of any airline trip. We had a wine and cheese tasting while looking at pronghorns and speeding across North Dakota and looking at pronghorns. Even the layovers were cool. Who knew a train station could be a cool place? (Union Station in D.C.)
I wish Greyhound would improve things to that point. They may have, since I haven’t been on a bus since November 2003. Greyhound terminals were pretty sorry places then. They used to be pretty nice places when I was a kid. Ate many a meal in a Greyhound terminal when we crossed the country on vacation. best news stands in town as well. The airport news stands didn’t match them.
I’m down with sidewall seating for civil air transport. As long as they put in the locking roller systems for the floor, and load the freight containers in there with you, then kick it all out the back door once they overfly the cargo apron and test the wind velocity/direction with dropsondes.
Wouldn’t be very comfortable but at least there’s a fast egress option for the pax that get drunk and unruly.
Don’t know about those 2 but I still have mine, on my dogtags. P-38 iirc.
You all aren’t thinking this through to the logical conclusion. Pods.
I’m serious! Nobody likes sitting next to the lard-ass in an airplane, nor do they like a 30-inch wide aisle to march down, that cramped TV tray to put your snack and laptop on, not to mention two bathrooms for 180 people and you can’t use them for two hours out of the flight.
Amtrak is pretty cool, but it goes where the tracks go. And not as fast as aircraft.
I had an idea. Adding length to a train or an aircraft isn’t much of a big deal. In trains it’s merely tonnage to get started and stopped, your speed and costs are about the same if you’re hauling 5 miles of train and a million tons of passengers or a mile of train and a million tons of coal.
Likewise with aircraft, your main expense is mass, burning enough fuel to provide the thrust necessary to punch a hole in the air, gain part of it back at the tail, and keep enough differential pressure on the wings to keep your passengers afloat.
What if we were to integrate this whole transportation scheme with individual pods? Think of them as individual living spaces ranging from coffins for the short-haul to 4×8 living rooms for the long haul? Just as carrier freight went to containers for hauling goods, overall efficiency could be improved by moving people by container and choosing the best option of transportation modes.
So you’re going from DC to Newark. You get in your coffin, fire up the DVD player, and relax for an hour. Pick-and-place robots take your coffin, put it aboard a train, you’re out again in an hour.
You’re taking the family from DC to San Francisco. You get into your larger pod with bathroom, snack bar, and fold-down beds and start your trip. Subway to the train station, train station to airport, aboard a cargo plane to SF International, from there to your nearest point of departure in the neighborhood you intend to visit. Or, save money and ride the rails on your trip, or take beautiful I-80 across the plains.
Trust me, moving cargo is years ahead of moving people in terms of logistics. What we need is merely the cargo vessel, like the container used on container ships.
And while these containers are larger than a human, obviously, that’s not a drawback. Aircraft and trains and trucks spend most of their fuel getting up to speed and off the ground. Trucks have the added waste of basically pulling a vacuum behind their flat-ended trailers, but in effect if you make a train longer or an aircraft wider, so long as you design the tail end right they’ll get back most of the energy they spend pushing the wind out of the way of the fat thing.
That allows you to make a cargo plane, or train, optimized for carrying pods. Pods with passengers and munchies and places to sleep and videos to watch. And do it darned near as cheaply as present-day airlines, and without exposure to everybody’s cold or disease or sharing bathrooms and need I mention I can just lay down and snooze the whole way or watch my choice of movie?
Passengers are freight, pure and simple. American and SouthWest and United and Delta, I’m convinced, could learn a lesson from FedEx and UPS.
Oh, and if anybody makes a mint off this, you read it here first. I’ll be paying $50 to everybody who comes forward as a witness in my intellectual property right lawsuit, and $100 to whomever gets the lawyer to work pro bono and for under 30%.
– Max
Sort of a habitat version of the shipping container. Neat idea!
Gerry and Sylvia Anderson (Captain Scarlet, UFO, Space-1999) would approve.
I remember that show. I also remember being somewhat disappointed when 1999 rolled around and we were still flying that ugly Shuttle. For my money, the star of that show was the Eagle. I wonder if they got the idea for the Eagle from the Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane? The rest of it sort of stunk. Except for the skin-tight polyester uniforms on the women. Those were kind of nice. They made up for a lot of the time I’d be looking at the screen and just not be able to believe what I saw.
– Max
Let’s go one step further. Since passengers are freight, box them up like freight. Of course, they would have to be sedated beforehand, but once they are nice and docile, wrap them in bubblewrap and stuff them in the hold or strap them to the walls. Call it ‘Amistad Class.’
Max, THAT is thinking outside the box…..or in this case, inside the box ! Bravo
If you won’t fly due to the way the TSA runs the airport security, how they package the contents of the planes doesn’t matter.
I always felt that my 17 years as an airline pilot would have been a great job, if it weren’t for having to take all those pesky passengers with us.
But the conundrum was: How to get pay and benefits without those “pesky passengers” paying the freight.
We were discussing MRE’s. I like them. All of them. I don’t much care to spend the time eating, even though my wife is a “gourmet” and hence we often times eat what folks around here call “exotic dishes” and I call “where’s the meat and taters?” Which gives you an idea of the food I grew up with that likely colors my opinion.
But that aside, the MRE ought to be renamed Bachelor Chow, because it is second only to a pot of chili already in the fridge from being instant nutrition. And it’s not like the taste will chunder a cheetah! Beans, meat, some kind of rabbit food, cracker pack and some wipes, I’m set for hours!
The best part was, of course, the packets of non-dairy creamer. To heat your coffee, place coffee and water in a tin cup and set over two packets of the creamer. Light the creamer. For extra heat and a whole lot more smoke you could add the sugar packets too.
I wonder if the people who make MRE’s made the creamer flammable just for this purpose?
Of course, MRE coffee is absolute swill compared to shipboard coffee. So is Starbucks, in my opinion.
Of what little I saw, that’s all I miss. The coffee.
– Max
Max, Mythbusters did a show spotlighting Internet/YouTube myths, and proved that a tube filled with (IIRC) sawdust would ignite when the sawdust was ejected into the air. They decided to top that with a couple of chest-sized bags of coffee creamer.
The three were halfway over a 200-foot hill when the fireball ignited practically in their faces.