Airline Seating Safety?

[raid517]

Hi!

I am a part time (amature) inventor and engineer and I am currently engaged in a project which attempts to revaluate the subject of airline passenger safety – and specifically of airline passenger seat safety.

At present I am purely in the research phase of this project and am attempting to understand better the various issues concerning this topic. I am therefore at this current time engaged in a search for as much research material into this topic as it is possible for me to obtain.

The kind of research material I am looking for is essentially any kind of testing data, audio and visual multimedia content showing crash and other test results, information concerning various national and international government regulations with direct reference to airline seating design, individual airline policies and attitudes towards this topic (from a purely safety standpoint) general engineering specifications of current designs and so on.

Can you department assist in any way?

GJ

 

[raid517]

Damn... where is the edit button? Sorry folks I mean can anyone *here* assist in anyway. (I've been writing too many letters).

GJ

 

[WKTaylor]

raid517~

Check-out the AFWAL*, NASA, FAA and NTSB websites for technical reports on safety, crash testing, etc. The ICAO** and IATA*** have participated in research ... along with the foreign [equivalent] to US FAA and NTSB [specifically in EU, Canada, Australia and probably CIS-Russia?] have also done a lot of significant work. Private [Corporate] work, unfunded by any government agency, may be impossible to “access”, simply due to the proprietary nature of the data [unless You work for the company… then employment restrictions apply]. Good luck!

Some possible topics for your “interest”…

Intelligent on-board monitoring systems for over-all cabin environment, PAX movement/actions, multi-spectral sensors in stowage, crew-specific and maintenance areas, etc.

De-lethalization of cockpit, cabin-crew and cabin-passenger seating/stowage environments.

Improving cargo-compartment rigidity/strength/survivability for [post-] small detonation/weapons effects [damage], etc

Specialized seating/equipment to accommodate “oversized” PAX [obese, big/tall/wide].

* Air Force Wright Aeronautical Labs

** International Committee on Aeronautics

*** International Air transport Association

Regards, Wil Taylor

 

[raid517]

Thanks... But to be honest what I'm looking for is even more specific than this. It is actual test, specification and design data on airline chairs. I am also interested in direct statistical fatality and injury rates on board aircraft due to both crashes and accidents on board (for example if someone sprains an ankle on the way to the lavatory, or trips over or falls, or is injured due to turbulence - how I wonder can I find out about this? I am also interested in finding out who was injured and what age they were - and how effective airline safety equipment and seating is for people of all ages - from the very young to the very old? In other words is it equally effective in all cases?

GJ

 

[raid517]

I guess what I'm looking for also is contacts who can answer real direct questions - as from reading what you posted it is both extemely generalised and also poses several additional questions that I feel still need answering.

GJ

 

[raid517]

Man I feel like I'm wasting forum space here - I'm sure there must be an edit button somewhere... Anyway do you have links to any of these sites? The only one I could find waqs the last one you printed.

I agree too that the propriatory nature of some of this information might be a hurdle - so I guess my only chance is if I can speak to someone, or collaborate with someone with direct knowledge of this field in order to have the best possible chance of completing this project.

I think I really need to talk to someone with indepth knowledge of the design and safety requirments of airline interiors.

This is something of an amature project (as I said, I am something of an inventor) but I am hoping to produce something interesting and possibly saleable at the end of it.

GJ

 

[WKTaylor]

raid517...

NTSB keeps records You want... but only for reported cases.

I seriously doubt wether airline safety-offices would ever share this with You for obvious liability reasons. Perhaps legal-beagle websites with data on aviation legal-actions/law-suits would work better.

You may also have better luck getting info thru one of the following:

http://www.ariane-info.com/acc-00e.htm

http://airdisaster.com/

http://www.faa.gov/safety/data_statistics/nasdac/

http://www.asionline.org/

http://www.planecrashinfo.com/

Regards, Wil Taylor

 

[raid517]

Well really this is a project that in many ways seeks to lessen airline liability. So that is a kind of frustrating aspect of it. Even legal beagle web sites are duty bound to keep client data confidential.

But the degree of secrecy is a little bemusing.

You might think that anything someone can do to lessen liability and to reduce passenger accident rates might be of interest to the airlines.

But it's how to move past that veil and to obtain any really useful data that is proving difficult. You wouldn't have thought that something so mundane as an airline chair could prove so secretive. Essentially I believe (or at least the inventor part of me believes) that that it is entirely possible to devise a new and inherently safer kind of airline passenger chair - which is essentially what this project is about.

But there is no way I can do this without any kind of real time hard data (such as engineering specifications for the seating for the various different kinds of airliners and so on).

I can see why this is proprietary - but it still gets me exactly nowhere towards my goal of designing a better airline chair.

GJ

 

[raid517]

Those are though some interesting links - and I will certainly pursue them.

GJ

 

[rb1957]

try yahooing (or googleing) "aerospace seats", "airplane seats"

a couple of goo looking hits are ...
beaerospace.com (who make seats)
and rapid-response-consulting.com (who have a good looking write-up, but who knows !)

good luck

 

[raid517]

Thanks, I will certainly look at that. The other thing that might be of use is if anyone could even supply an idealised scenario, as in what would be a typical generic specification for a modern airline chair? In other words if I wanted to comission someone to build one for me, what exactly would this specification look like and what would it entail?

Again this purely needs to be a hypothetical scenario - athough perhaps it should be based someone on someones direct exoperience of this field?

GJ