Smooth flight? ... Germany launches naked daytrip charter flight. Photograph: Corbis
For some passengers this summer, that moment when the flight attendant strides down the aisle, closely inspecting your midriff to check that your seatbelt is fastened, has suddenly become a lot more uncomfortable. So, come to think of it, has the seatbelt.
All the travellers on the plane from the German city of Erfurt to the Baltic island resort of Usedom will be flying not low but completely starkers.
The naked daytrip charter flight is the brainchild of travel agents OssiUrlaub, who hope to attract the thousands of holidaymakers in Germany who enjoy going as God intended around beaches and lakes in the summer. Naturism, or "free body culture" (FKK), was banned by the Nazis but flourished after the second world war, particularly in eastern Germany.
Strolling through an airport completely naked is an appealingly rebellious act, as well as speeding up those security searches, but sadly the 55 passengers who will take the first €499 (£360) naked flight can only disrobe within the confines of the aircraft cabin. That gaze from the cabin staff won't be one of equals either: they - and the pilots - have to keep their uniforms on "for security reasons".
I have no desire to deposit my nervously sweaty bum on the unforgiving fabric of an aircraft seat or expose myself to the risk of a horrific scalding when turbulence intervenes as tea is served. But Andrew Welch of British Naturism can see the logic.
"When you go on a naturist holiday there is no need for clothing. If you can extend that period of nakedness into the journey then why not?" he says. "It sounds a little bit crazy to be naked on a plane, but when you're all undressed it then becomes the norm and there is no issue whatsoever."
British Naturism runs successful holidays every year, with this year's special events including Nudefest 2008 in Cornwall, organised beach days and a winter trip to Alton Towers (no nude rides, however, only nakedness in the hotel's large waterpark).
Can we expect naturist flights to take off in Britain? "It could be a possibility but it won't be top of our priority list," says Welsh. British naturists are discussing hiring a coach to head to Cornwall this year but this will not be a naked journey, Welsh says firmly.
Flights really don't do it for me, but some people seem to love sneaking off to the toilets for a spot of mid-air nookie. But naturists insist that getting naked is not about sexual arousal and getting naked on a plane is definitely not foreplay for the first ever mile high orgy.
"I don't want people to get the wrong idea. It's not that we're starting a swinger club in mid-air or something like that," says Enrico Hess, managing director of the travel agency. "We're a perfectly normal holiday company."
