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Aviation History
1952
1952 - 1392.PDF
6io FLIGHT, 16 May 1952 AIRLINER INTERIOR EQUIPMENT Present Practice and Future Trends IN 1946 the British air-transport industry was in a state of flux. Not only was the scale, and form, of future operations uncertain, but no acceptable standards were immediately available to which equipment could be designed. During the next two years, operations carried out largely with aircraft of basically military design provided experience which was gradually assessed and incorporated in the design of the new British transports. In particular, the Hermes IV may be named as having been the first modern airliner incorporating all the most advanced features of British practice at the time of its design; while the latest ideas are illustrated by the Comet, Elizabethan and Pionair. Of the overall picture today, we may remark- that the airline industry is again in a state of flux. It has realized that air transport can attract a much higher proportion of the travelling public by cutting all "frills"—free meals, beauty kits, and the like—and offering consequently reduced fares. This change of outlook is reflected in the manner in which passenger transports are being furnished. No longer do we see large aircraft fitted to carry fewer than 20 passengers and provided with sleeping berths; reclining.chairs are now universally used even on the largest aircraft, fitted five, or sometimes six, abreast. Crew complements have been cut by increased use of automatic equipment and ground aids. Galleys are smaller, but can serve more meals faster, and toilets take up less floor-space and can therefore be duplicated. High density, in fact, is the keynote in passenger-transport interiors. Convertibility. There is considerable justification for describing the principle of built-in convertibility—for different transport roles—as the most important feature of commercial aircraft design to have become established in recent years. Quite apart from the question of building airliners with an eye on their possible emergency service as military transports, the value of an aircraft is clearly greatly increased if the machine can readily be adapted for use in a number of different r61es. With the first cost of the larger transports becoming stabilized at approximately £500,000— exclusive of spares—it would appear that civil operators are everywhere going to demand provision for increased adaptability in the basic design of such aircraft to permit greater flexibility in operation. Perhaps surprisingly, this feature has nowhere been developed to such a high degree as in this country. It is epitomized in the Bristol 175—-clearly destined, unless something quite unforeseen happens, to be a world-beater. In this aircraft the basic fuselage- structure has been designed to permit the installation of standard seats in rows of four, five or six, facing fore or aft, with any desired pitch-spacing. The floor is also stressed for heavy cargo loads, in which case the chair pick-up points function as freight lashing points. Finally, movable bulkheads are fitted to permit any combination of passengers and freight to be carried with the greatest convenience—a system pioneered on the same company's 170 Freighter. All other modern British airliners make provision for variable-density seating, or for combined passenger/freight conversion. Such conversion usually requires some six to twelve man-hours. Present practice is to carry "surplus" seats in the aircraft rather than to off-load them at foreign calling-points; operators do not appear happy about the idea of maintaining stocks of seats at numerous points on their route networks. Seats. In spite of a new and stringent A.R.B. ruling—9g with a normal 1.2 factor—seats are lighter and more comfortable today than ever before. Almost universally employed is a light tubular frame, often of magnesium, with foam-rubber cushioning; two grades of rubber are usual, the foam being denser for the seat than for the back. Seat facing of wool rep or tapestry is usual, although B.E.A. seats are faced in leather, and some American seats are covered with nylon. Arms are usually faced with P.V.C. or leather; in some tourist seat-blocks folding arms are fitted, although a strong fixed arm is helpful in supporting the seat-back, a factor of vital importance if rearward-facing is adopted. As for this last vexed question, it may only be said that, pending the results of research now in progress, no airline is prepared to take a decision on "aft-facing" at this time; but new chairs for both British Corporations are designed for fitting to face either fore or aft, as required. from the rear, the Elizabethan triple seat displays the fitted tables— which do not prevent the seats from reclining—and the ashtray and cup-holder installations. Ashtrays are fitted variously in seat arms or backs; the most advanced ashtray we have seen is that developed by B.E.A. for die Elizabethan; it is easily cleaned, light, extinguishes cigarettes, and displays much thought in its design: it is fitted behind the seat in front of the user. B.O.A.C. ashtrays are usually fitted in the seat-arms, and a new design is in preparation to cater for cigars. Lap safety-belts, rated at 9g, are universal, as is life-jacket stowage under the seat and a pocket in the seat-back. "First- class" services normally provide a table—usually attached to the seat-aims, although the Elizabethan boasts tables which can be attached to the reclining back of the seat in front; the table pivots to remain level. Furnishing fabrics. Both from decorative and maintenance aspects, P.V.C.-coated cloth is preferred for wall and ceiling lining; backed, but not supported, by glass-wool insulation, it is usually attached to thin wood, plastic or metal laths, which are screwed to the fuselage structure. Bulkheads, vestibule walls and certain other areas are frequently panelled in wood veneer, usually laminated, which is surfaced with a hard, synthetic- resin to preserve a polish and render the material fireproof. Floor covering usually takes the form of a 100 per cent wool carpet, either rubber-backed or mounted on felt; in England, nylon is not favoured for floors, due to its tendency to "matt- down" and also to melt away if locally heated. Areas liable to heavy wear or to spilt fluids—vestibules, galleys, and crew space—are chiefly floored in P.V.C. fabric upwards of Jin thick. For window covering—essential on passenger transports— fireproof wool or linen curtains are normally provided, although B.E.A favour blinds : the Viking uses accordion-pleated blinds and the Elizabethans a very neat roller blind. Windows. Double Perspex-sheet windows, with a silica-gel dessicant in the air-space, are standard; on pressurized aircraft the inner window takes the pressure difference, the thin outer pane accepting the possibly high temperature-gradient without great internal stress. The A.R.B. specifies that there shall be (approximately) one emergency exit per six passengers; windows are the obvious choice for such exits and, on pressurized aircraft, are arranged to pull away inwards. Theoretically, the ideal shape for an aperture in a hollow cylinder is an ellipse. It is interesting to note that two of the most important British pressurized transports—the Bristol 175 and the Viscount—do, in fact, employ such a window shape, contrary to the influence of the fuselage structure. Cabin-atmosphere. Much attention has necessarily been paid to cabin-conditioning in recent years. The essential elements of pressurizing systems are well known, but it may be recorded that present practice favours admission of air to the passenger-space at floor level, with extraction from a higher level. Additional individual air inlets are almost universal: on non-pressurized aircraft these are supplied with ram air from external intakes; such fittings are adjustable both in direction and in volume flow. Individual fans, such as are seen on B.O.A.C. tourist Constellations, are unusual and may not be repeated on future aircraft. Humidifying equipment is essential for high-altitude aircraft; but possibly the greatest single conditioning problem is to provide an efficient, light refrigeration installation which, like the heating equipment, must be capable of functioning while the aircraft is at rest on the ground. An oxygen installation is always provided to serve all members of the flight crew—even on pressurized aircraft—while portable
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