SkyRider airplane seat — "Like riding horseback"

Yippie-yi-yo-ki-yay!

Just when you thought the air travel experience couldn't get any worse, along comes the new airplane seat pictured up top.

Wrote Charisse Jones in a September 10, 2010 USA Today story, passengers will "... sit at an angle with no more than 23 inches between their perch and the seat in front of them — a design that could appeal to low-cost airlines that have floated the idea of offering passengers standing-room tickets on short flights."

More: "The SkyRider could be its own class of seating, like business or coach.... Passengers would likely pay lower fares. But airlines could boost their profits because the narrowly spaced seats would allow them to squeeze more fliers on board."

A spokesman for the company which invented the seat told Jones, "For flights anywhere from one to possibly even up to three hours... this would be comfortable seating.... The seat... is like a saddle. Cowboys ride eight hours on their horses during the day and still feel comfortable in the saddle."

That could be my favorite analogy of the year.

But I digress.

More: "Ryanair, the Irish low-cost carrier that has set trends such as charging for in-flight meals, has said it would let passengers stand during flights if the Irish Aviation Authority would allow it."

"And last year, Spring Airlines, a low-cost carrier in China, tried to get the OK from regulators to redesign its planes to accommodate some standing passengers."

"But Gaetano Perugini..., who created the SkyRider, emphasizes that the firm isn't proposing that passengers be on their feet."

"Even though the (distance between seats) is extremely narrow, we are talking about seats, not about... having passengers simply standing on the floor," he says.... You are sitting on a special seat, but it is a seat."