Revolutionary Food Cart that Doesn't Block Airplane Aisles

From flickr.com, image by Lodian

Ever sat or slept in an aisle seat of an airplane with one arm relaxed on the armrest just to be rudely awakened by a food cart banging into your elbow? Have you ever asked for a meal on the food menu only for the flight attendant to say, “Oh, I’m sorry, but we ran out of that meal. Can I get you something else?” Well now, neither of these will be a problem with a new food cart created by designer Heather Dunne called the Orbit.

Being only eight inches wide and utilizing a pressure shelf system, the Orbit will not only take up less aisle space, but it can hold up to 60 meals. Two separate serving compartments within the Orbit will also allow for joint housing of both cold and hot food, and with the pressure shelf system, flight attendants will no longer need to bend down to reach meals at the bottom of the cart. The pressure shelf system acts like a pressurized spring: once the top meals are taken off the top layer of stacked meals, the next layer of meals moves up to take the top layer’s place.

Curious about how the Orbit fares under turbulence? There is no talk of tests done on the Orbit just yet, but  the Orbit also has twist and touch sensitive handles which allow for easy and safe movement of the cart through the aisles.  For example, when the handle is released, the cart stops; when the handle is twisted backwards, the motor moves the cart forward; and when the handle is twisted forwards, the cart reverses.  The planes using the Orbit will also be outfitted with sunken tracks on each aisle on which the Orbit’s wheels will travel. With the Orbit secured into special tracks on the airplane aisles, and the control of the twist and touch sensitive handles, it seems unlikely that it would move during turbulence.

Although not all questions have been answered in the early stages of this design, Heather Dunne has certainly revolutionized and modernized the airplane food cart. While it will certainly be expensive to produce the Orbit and outfit planes with the tracks, who knows, during the next few years, we might see the Orbit, or even the new drink cart Heather Dunne is currently designing to mimic the Orbit, in action. Watch for it while flying to and from college, studying abroad, or during any of your other travels.