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Flippable seat backs on planes

switch the direction the passenger seats for landings
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Landings might be more comfortable (and safer?) if you were leaning back into them. Everyone could just stand up and flip their seatback then sit down facing the back of the plane.
mrthingy, Aug 03 2001

[link]






       This could also be useful if you were travelling in a group of 6 (assuming that one side of the aisle has three rows of seats) and wanted to all be able to talk to each other during the flight.
mwburden, Aug 03 2001
  

       I actually read a (crappy) sci-fi tale once where the airliners had seats that could rotate 180º on the first signs of an impact. They were mounted in a track with a linear gear on one side and a meshing gear on the bottom of the seat that spun the seat around as it traversed a few inches towards the front of the aircraft.

Alas, the plane hit a building many stories up and no one survived, despite the handy-dandy rotating seats. Beyond that one thing, the rest of the story was doo doo (and now that I think about a little harder, I'm pretty sure it was a book on tape I played whilst driving on holiday).
lummox, Aug 04 2001
  

       Mechanism adds weight, complexity, cost, size, and the possibility of failure. If seats can swivel, they can perhaps come off. I'd rather mine was bolted down, thanks.
egnor, Aug 04 2001
  

       The idea itself specifies that the seatback flips to the opposite side, rather than having the entire seat swivel. That probably wouldn't increase the risk of failure too much. I can't imagine there being enough room on an airplane to effectively swivel anything like in lummox's sci-fi story anyway.
PotatoStew, Aug 04 2001
  

       Good! Time to get back at the person previously behind you that kept kicking, drumming on, or otherwise messing with your seat back.
human411, Aug 05 2001
  

       egnor: PotatoStew's right. The seat bottoms would be fixed. The backs would flip upside-down to face the other way.
mrthingy, Jan 12 2002
  

       I think this idea was looked at by airline safety wallahs at some point and they found it was better to be facing the tail of the plane in a crash, but passengers felt nauseous travelling backwards. The crew all face backwards tho. Except the blokes who are driving, I s'pose. Anyway, pieces of red hot engine casing embedded in your body hurt wichever way they come from. Also if the seat did flip, all the stuff that gets dumped in the seat pockets, peanuts, sick-bags etc would all land on the knees of the person in front (or is that behind).
dijit, Jun 23 2002
  

       In the event of a crash if the seats can flip forward and a person is setting facing forward what will happen? Duhh, I guess the weight of the seat back will be transfered to the passenger. Oh and the weight of the person behind as well (and their seat back and so on)   

       I suggest you add some locking mechanism to the seat back so this doesn't happen....
madness, Feb 02 2003
  

       Just land the plane backwards and your problem fixes itself.
Cuit_au_Four, Oct 18 2006
  

       sitting backwards saves lives. It restrains the whole body. All US military transports face backwards for this reason. Their higher probability of a crash landing and ditching makes it useful. The reason for not having it on commercial aircraft.....is the reason for having it!:   

       Passenger:"why are we sitting backwards?" Crew:"in case we crash" P"we're going to crash?" C"noooo, it's just in case"   

       A.N Other"did someone say crash over there?..." P"yes, apparently we're all going to sit backwards for when we crash.." A.N Other"do we get the meal before or after we crash?" A.N Other"i demand a forward facing seat....i want to at least SEE the person i'm crashing into before i smash my head into them."   

       Coincidently, they have these safe backwards seats on trains so that there are some uninjured people to help the injured people in the forward facing seats off the train...and to administer last writes to those who sat in front of a table...   

       Why don't they just install seats facing backwards in the first place? A little discomfort on takeoff is worth a lot of safety.
Voice, Aug 05 2010
  

       Why don't they just make the planes double-ended like ferries so that they can land backwards? Oh, hi [Cuit au Four].   

       I can't sit backwards,even on a train. Something about it gives me what is known as 'carnival tummy'.
Cedar Park, Aug 05 2010
  

       //A little discomfort on takeoff is worth a lot of safety//   

       Not necessarily.   

       WHY do people have this idea that you can't put a price on safety? That any amount of hassle, inconvenience or discomfort is worth it if it reduces that risk from 1 in a million, to 1 in a million-and-one?
MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 05 2010
  
      
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