1/2 place flex seating configuration

On 18 Dec 2003 18:00:42 -0800, (Leon McAtee) wrote:

So, what about a mixture of the two?

Imagine side by side seats.....but you slide the passenger seat back roughly 2
feet.....if you do that and allow the passengers legs to be lower than the
level of the pilots hips....you can have a pretty narrow cabin that would still
allow a decent amount of elbow/hip/shoulder room .....and perhaps even allow
for the left (say) passengers leg to be under the pilots seat....

Anyone ever seen an arrangement like that?

There is an article in an old Popular Mechanix or Science where just
that seating arangment was proposed for a "next generation" trainer.
IIRC Rutan had something to do with the article........

I believe the DH Mosquito had just such an arrangement...at least if I
remember "633 Squadron" correctly.

Ron "Vesuvius" Wanttaja

BllFs6 wrote:

Hi all


This thread reminds me of something I've been wondering about the past year or
2....

Okay, you have side by side seating...in which you either have a nice wide
cockpit and pay a substantial weight/aero penalty....or you have your shoulders
rubbing the canopy on one side and the passengers on the other....

Or, you can take inline seating....but now the passenger gets to stare at the
back of the pilots head and really cant help with watching guages (well they
can if you install 2 of everything....another penalty there) or flying or
digging up maps etc etc....


So, what about a mixture of the two?

Imagine side by side seats.....but you slide the passenger seat back roughly 2
feet.....if you do that and allow the passengers legs to be lower than the
level of the pilots hips....you can have a pretty narrow cabin that would still
allow a decent amount of elbow/hip/shoulder room .....and perhaps even allow
for the left (say) passengers leg to be under the pilots seat....

Anyone ever seen an arrangement like that?


Seems to me that it might be a more efficient and comfortable way to pack
people and stuff into a small cabin....


take care

Blll

Burt Rutan staggered the 2 front seats (a little) in his Boomerang. The
idea was just to get the shoulders from hitting each other.

The Percival Gull had 3 seats all staggered. The middle seat could fold
out of the way to give a "tandem" with a walk way.

I'm sure there are lots of others, the 2 mentioned are reported to work
very well.

Martin
Pitts S1-S

(Leon McAtee) wrote in message . com...

For the original poster - Since she doesn't like the look of the back
of your head, have you considered turning her around and let her look
where you have been? This arngment also has the added benefit of
having the pilot and passanger's CG closer together than the
traditional arangment.

Thats actually one I've toyed with in my own designs for the reasons
you've mentioned but it looks like nothing like that exists in kit
form which is more likely to happen.

In previous posts people had complained about looking backwards but
apart from takeoff and landings, when you're up high, the relative
motion is so slow, there is very little difference in the feeling of
forward or backward. I've flown commercial backwards and you don't
notice except for having lots of leg room.

The down side of having the other set backwards is that the other
person will NEVER fly the plane which would me many wives. I like the
idea of having a single seater that can act as a 2 place for checkout
though.