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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 2039.PDF
NOVEMBER 2OTH, 1947 FLIGHT 585 SEATS for the MIGHTY and the MILLION >blems in Aircraft Seating Complete Conversion Kits for Dakotas and Skym asters Scaling only 13 Ib this chair represents the limit in com- fort per Ib weight. AS the design of aircraft progresses, the fitting-out of /-% interiors becomes more and more the task of •*• •*• specialists. Important as is the aesthetic aspect, the main problems are seating and silence. Luxurious and super-comfortable armchairs have been made since- time immemorial, but just five minutes inside a factory like Rumbold's is sufficient to prove anyone wrong who thinks that aircraft seats are just armchairs with a bit of lightness added. Almost every aircraft presents some difference, which means that nearly every chair is a "one-off," and it is next to impossible to get into real mass production. In addition, a number of exacting requirements have to be met. Lightness is an essential; this is met by using nesium tubing almost exclusively for the framework of all models. Comfort is an elusive and difficult quality to inhere. The LARJI40 aircraft chair Siot51\e reeled and folded. Cushions are of generous dimensions. The passenger who pays more than first-class rail fare rightly expects a luxurious standard, yet the operator can easily make a loss by virtue of the over-generous weight of the cabin furnishings. Actual fabrics themselves are a major problem. When one remembers that any part of the world is now within 60 hours' flying time of any other part, it is obvious that <*the furnishings and chair coverings must be equally suit- ^4e for use in the damp of England, the snows northern Canada and the tropical heat of Africa. Added to the foregoing there must be real strength—all seats must stand up to at least 6 g—and the appearance, so far as is possible, must be that of massive generosity. Of course, it is not to be expected that quite the same standard of comfort is demanded for a multi-seater on short-haul work as that which can be achieved in a super V.I.P.s' air- craft. Yet the differences are not so great as would be imagined. Rumbold's lightest aircraft seat weighs but 13 lb, while the latest luxury model scales only 38 lb com- plete with footrest. An interesting innovation, of which the firm is very proud, is the new LAR/140 folding chair,which provides an excel- lent standard of comfortand, while weighing only The new pilot's seat design id especially for the Handley Page Hastings. Super com- fort in fight costs only 38 1b in weight. 27 lb, packs down to a rectangle- 52m long, 28m wide and yjiii deep. The main purpose in the design of this chair is to use it in aircraft on routes where there are big varia- tions in freight loads and the numbers of passengers carried. For each chair four small keyholed plates are permanently fixed to the floor, and the chairs are fitted or dismantled as required. Erection or dismantling is easily accomplished in well under 20 seconds. This type has been much in use in the evacuation flights be- tween India and Pakistan. Passengers, however, are not the only people in an aircraft who have to sit down. The crew also have their special require- ments. Pilots' seats must be efficient and comfortable ; wireless operators' and naviga- tors' chairs must swivel and slide, and in military types the bomb aimer must have suitable support. All these have to be de- signed and supplied in never-ending variety to suit particular aircraft. At present a special batch is coming through for the Handley Page Hastings. Chairs, however specialized, are but a part of the furnishing and decoration of an air- craft. For over 20 years the concern has devoted itself almost exclusively to the complete furnishing, decoration and sound- proofing of aircraft, and now they have got so far as even to be designing their own special fabrics. One of these, which goes by the name of Laride, is a utility covering in the best, not the modern, sense of the word. It has a PVC plastic facing on an all-wool backing, and has the feel and appearance of a pliable leather. Sound-proofing is very skilled work calling for wide experience and, in this connection, there is at the offices a much-prized document which reads "Secret .0. C.54B Special. Owner's cabin. The clock is to be made more silent." The Owner, ^edless to say, was Mr. Winston Churchill He was Prime Minister. Rumbold's felt ey were getting somewhere when the customer complained of a noisy clock. A departure of singular interest to-day is the supply of complete conversion kits for Dakotas and Skymasters. Large numbers of these have already been supplied, notably to K.L.M. and Fokkers. Customers close at hand receive their kits in progressive con- signments, but those kits which go farther afield are sent complete in cases with an in structor to help in the work of installation. The schedules of these kits are a revelation of careful thinking, down to tiny detail. Everything is included even to tea spoons in the galley. Over 60 per cent of these kits go for export.
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