I am so not getting on this plane

Fig. 1 

In case you missed it, this is Fig. 1 from US Patent Application Publication 2014/0159444, "Seating device comprising a forward-foldable backrest."

It's assigned to Airbus.  You've probably seen it - it's been making the rounds this week.  And you're thinking, "no way they ever put this in an actual plane.  Even airlines are not that sadistic and stupid.

But then there's this actual mock-up from 2011, courtesy of the Daily Mail:

Yeah, that's MUCH better.  You can really relax in these seats.  See how happy the model is?  

Actually, if you look closely, I think her expression is more like "You have got to be kidding me."

BTW, the pitch on the seats in that mock-up is apparently 23 inches. Now imagine you're sitting in that seat, and the guy in the seat in front of you reclines his seatback.   Nice, right?

There are only two virtues of this seat for the passenger: (1) there's no room for a tray table, so they can't inflict an airline meal on you; and (2) there's no place to set up your laptop, so you can't even pretend to work on the flight.