Aircraft bench organized to receive a variable number of passengers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9963235-B2
Application number	US-201514859495-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 21, 2015
Priority date	Sep 23, 2014
Publication date	May 8, 2018
Grant date	May 8, 2018

Abstract

An aircraft bench having passenger-receiving locations each defined by two seating plates for receiving a respective buttock of a passenger. Each of the seating plates is individually mounted to pivot on a front spar of the bench and each is individually supported in suspension via its rear edge by a respective energy absorber. The bench is fitted with a plurality of adjacent sets of straps that are lockable together in pairs by a buckle, with locking points that are selectively usable for belting in a passenger depending on the passenger-receiving location selected by the passenger.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An aircraft bench comprising:
a carrier structure supporting a frame providing a bucket formed by a seat pan and a seat back, the bucket having a predefined plurality of individual locations for receiving passengers, the carrier structure comprising a stand having catches for fastening the bench in its utilization station and spars, including a front spar situated at the front of the bench in the utilization station and a rear spar situated at the rear of the bench in the utilization station, the front spar and the rear spar each being mounted on the stand, the frame being pivotally mounted on the carrier structure at least by means of the seat pan pivotally mounted on the stand via the front spar;
a plurality of harnesses, the number of harnesses corresponding to the optimum number of passengers who can be received simultaneously by the bench, each harness comprising at least four straps including two shoulder straps and two lap straps, each of the straps being anchored to the bench at one of its ends and each being lockable at its opposite end to a buckle at predefined locking points so as to loop a harness around a passenger;
a plurality of energy absorbers engaged on the frame, the energy absorbers serving to retain at least the seat pan in the event of the aircraft accelerating strongly against the forces to which the bucket is subjected and generated by at least one passenger received by the bench, each energy absorber being deformable as a result of the forces to which the bucket is subjected exceeding a predefined force threshold;
wherein:
the seat pan is subdivided along the general extent of the front spar into a plurality of adjacent seat plates, two adjacent seat plates together providing an individual location for receiving a passenger by receiving respective individual buttocks of the passenger;
each seat plate is individually mounted to move in pivoting on the carrier structure, each seat plate being firstly individually pivotally mounted on the stand at its front edge via the front spar, and secondly being individually supported in suspension at its opposite rear edge by at least one energy absorber; and
considering a distribution of the straps of each of the harnesses as two distinct sets of straps, each comprising a shoulder strap and a lap strap, each set of straps serving to belt in a passenger on a respective one of the passenger's sides, the straps of a middle set of straps that are placed adjacent between any two sets of straps referred to as neighboring sets are jointly lockable to a common buckle, selectively with one or the other of the neighboring sets of straps by means of respective combinations of locking points (ABCD; ABCD) of the buckle that are identified depending on the relative positions between the sets of straps co-operating with the same buckle;
the various sets of straps co-operating in pairs with a common buckle depending on the locations selected by the passengers, each of which has two adjacent seat plates, three successively adjacent seating plates defining in pairs two passenger-receiving locations, and three successively adjacent sets of straps used in respective pairs for belting in a passenger on respective sides being suitable for belting in a passenger regardless of the location selected by the passenger making use of any two adjacent seat plates.

2. An aircraft bench according to claim 1 , wherein each of the buckles has a set of five locking points, including:
a “permanent” locking point for permanently locking one of the straps of any one of the sets of straps referred to as the “first” set to the buckle; and
four “temporary” locking points (B, C, D, E) for temporarily locking the other strap of the first set of straps and the straps of either one of the sets of straps adjacent to the first set of straps selectively to the buckle in the position for looping a harness around a passenger, the locking taking place via three temporarily locking points (C, D, E; B, C, D) respectively identified depending on the relative position of the sets of straps used for belting in the passenger.

3. A bench according to claim 1 , wherein each energy absorber comprises a wire closed in a loop and wound closely between the ends of said loop formed by the wire around a pulley rotatably mounted on a bearing fastened to the seat back;
wherein a “proximal” one of the ends of the loop is fastened to the seating plate associated with the wire, with the “distal” other end of the loop being free and being arranged above said pulley in the absence of the wire supporting forces below said force threshold determining when the energy absorber is put into use; and
wherein the wire is provided with retaining means for retaining the distal end of the loop against the pulley at the end of the stroke of the wire caused by the energy absorber being put into operation as a result of the forces to which the seating plates is subjected in the event of strong deceleration of the aircraft.

4. A bench according to claim 3 , wherein said retaining means are formed by winding the wire around the pulley using a knot known as a cow hitch closed around the pulley at the distal end of the loop at the end of the stroke of the wire resulting from the energy absorber being put into operation.

5. A bench according to claim 1 , wherein the stand comprises at least two brackets, each having at least one catch for fastening the bench in its utilization station, the brackets together carrying the front spar and the rear spar, and each having at least one front leg and at least one rear leg, and wherein said rear legs extend upwards towards the top of the seat back and they jointly carry at least one additional spar incorporated in the seat back.

6. A bench according to claim 1 , wherein each shoulder strap of the set of harnesses is engaged on an individual winder mounted on the seat back.

7. A bench according to claim 5 , wherein said rear legs jointly carry an auxiliary spar overlying the winders and guiding the shoulder straps from the seat back towards the front of the bench, the rear spar guiding the lap strap from the seat back towards the front of the bench.

8. A bench according to claim 7 , wherein the rear spar, the additional spar and the auxiliary spar constitute members for taking up forces to which the bench is subjected the rear spar supporting the base of the seat back and taking up the forces transmitted to the bucket by the lap strap and by the stand, the additional spar and the auxiliary spar taking up the forces transmitted to the bucket by the winders and by the shoulder straps and the forces transmitted by the energy absorbers and the stand.

9. A bench according to claim 1 , wherein the front spar and the rear spar are connected together by cross-members providing an assembly for overall tilting of the seat pan towards the seat back, the front spar being assembled to the stand by reversible fastener means allowing the front spar to be separated from the stand, the seat pan being foldable as a whole towards the seat back by separating the front spar from the stand and by pivoting the seat pan about the rear spar by means of the cross-members.

10. A bench according to claim 9 , wherein the front spar and a pair of front legs are mounted to pivot relative to each other, the pair of front legs being assembled to respective soleplates of the brackets via the reversible fastener means, said soleplates being provided with catches for fastening the bench in the utilization station.

11. A bench according to claim 10 , wherein the bench is stayed between the front and the rear by means of the stand, the pair of front legs and a pair of rear legs having props connecting the

Assignees

• Airbus Helicopters

Inventors

• Joffre Jean-Francois
• Almeida-Gonzalez Ernesto

Classifications

• Y02T50/46

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• B64D11/0647

  Seats characterised by special upholstery or cushioning features · CPC title

• B64D25/06

  Harnessing · CPC title

• B64D11/062 Primary

  Belts or other passenger restraint means for passenger seats · CPC title

• B64D11/0693

  Width modification of seat assemblies, e.g. for class modification · CPC title