Island Hopping and Globe Trotting

‘Side-slip seat’ eases jet boarding

Los Angeles » An airline seat that shifts to make boarding easier sounds like a crazy idea, but don’t be surprised to find it on future flights.

The "side-slip seat" is a concept by Molon Labe Designs, a Denver airline interior company that introduced the idea for the first time to airlines and manufacturers last week at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Germany. The president of the company said the seat design was a big hit at the exposition.

Here’s how it works: Imagine a row of three seats on a plane. The seat along the aisle will slide up and over the middle seat to widen the aisle and speed up the loading of passengers. Once the passengers are ready to sit down, the aisle seat can slide and lock back into place.

Once the seat is certified for use by the U.S. Department of Transportation and ready for production, don’t be surprised if several low-cost airlines order and install the seats, Molon Labe founder Hank Scott said after the exposition.

Fresh snow extends ski season

VAIL, Colo. » Vail Mountain, Breckenridge Ski Resort and Copper Mountain Resort are reopening for more skiing and riding Friday through Sunday on part of their terrain.

The three ski resorts held closing day festivities April 14, but Vail says it’s had 2 more feet of snow since then, Breckenridge has had 16 inches and Copper says it got more than a foot.

Vail and Breckenridge are offering $25 lift tickets for people with season passes from other resorts. Aspen Highlands is also offering a bonus weekend, Saturday and April 28. Its previously scheduled closing day was today.

Winter Park is assessing whether it will extend the season past its closing day today.

Loveland has said it plans to stay open through May 5, and Arapahoe Basin doesn’t plan to close until June 2.

Fix pau, Paw Paw Tunnel reopens

LITTLE ORLEANS, Md. » The National Park Service says the Paw Paw Tunnel in the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park has been reopened following repairs prompted by a January rockslide.

The slide occurred in 100-foot section of road east of the tunnel near Little Orleans. The Paw Paw Tunnel was built in the 1830s and ’40s to bypass a series of sharp bends in the Potomac River. It runs for three-fifths of a mile through a mountain in southern Allegany County.

The tunnel closure created a gap in the Great Allegheny Passage, a nearly level trail system that allows bicyclists and hikers to travel from Washington, D.C., to Homestead, Pa., near Pittsburgh.