Phugoids and Lie Flats
In one of the classes I took in undergraduate aerospace engineering, we covered phugoids. These are cycles of altitude ascent and descent that occur when trying to maintain a constant altitude. The concept was interesting but it remained just that, an interesting concept.
It was many years later that I’d be able to fully appreciate the concept and understand it and at a kinaesthetic level.
I was traveling across North America wracking up thousands of frequent flyer miles and airline status. Part of that status was being able to get upgrades to business class. Around 2010, Air Canada was using paper certificates for upgrades and on one red eye flight from Vancouver to Toronto, I was able to cash one for an upgrade on a 777. While the hard product on these planes was aging even then, it still offered lie flat beds. With great excitement, I boarded and after about 30 minutes into the 4 hour flight, I transformed the seat into the bed.
It was the first time I had found myself horizontal on a flight and this orientation created whole new sensations. When sitting, one’s balance will compensate for jerky movements. When lying down, this system seems to turn off and you’re left with a feeling like you’re flying. Not in the literal sense of flying in an airplane, but the sense of floating in the clouds as you get ascend and descent slowly like rolling over hills. It feels like being rocked gently.
At first, I couldn’t sleep through this weird sensation but on later flights when I was very privileged to have a seat that converted into a bed, the sensation was completely relaxing.
Even after watching many vloggers on luxury travel, I rarely hear anyone mention this sensation. It might be one of those things that’s hard to show in a vlog and even harder to describe. It’s also something that’s subtle.
As humans, we’re constantly pushing the limits on things that were normal for our ancestors for millennia but are now completely new. Flight and the many sensations associated with are some of them. The Internet and computing are bringing in new ones. Food cooked with fire, VR headsets, TikTok videos… When we create a new human experiences, we should pay close attention.
