The present invention relates generally to seating for the crew of an aircraft or spacecraft and more particularly to an articulated seat having multiple configurations including a stretcher.
Advancements in space travel have made manned space flights more realistic for a larger variety of people. In the past, space missions had crewmember sizes that were much more generic. It is no longer true that all of the crewmembers are relatively the same size and weight. In space travel today and as it is expected to change in the future, crewmembers are becoming more varied and people of many shapes and sizes need to be accommodated. Crew seats need to conform to crew sizes ranging from the smallest possible, for example a 5th percentile Japanese female in shirt sleeves, to the largest possible, such as a 95th percentile American male in an inflated space suit.
Crewmember comfort is of course a concern. But other practical considerations in seat design are also a concern. Typically, spacecraft seats are one-size-fits-all without any consideration for the size of the crewmember, the configuration of the seat for take-off, in-flight, and landing situations. Also, there has been a lack of any consideration for a crewmember that may be injured during the space flight mission. So while the crew has become more varied, the missions themselves are also more flexible. There may be a need to change crewmembers during the mission, as when dropping off and picking up crew from a remote location, such as a space station. Furthermore, it may become necessary during the mission to pick up and store additional cargo. Fixed seating configurations may prevent the possibility of storing excess cargo.
There is a need for a crew seat that has the capability of adjusting to several configurations and body sizes for various phases of the space flight and any potential changes during the flight such as changes to the crew, any injuries that may occur to a crewmember during the mission and the flexibility to easily adjust, stow, or remove seats to accommodate extra cargo.
An adjustable seat will provide multiple seat configurations for crewmembers of varying sizes and an articulated seat will adjust for changes in cargo. The seat can be adjusted in size and articulated in configuration such that it is positioned in any one of several different configurations, including a stretcher configuration. The seat allows for varying crew sizes, the size of each of the crewmembers, as well as mission changes, such as cargo transport or emergency return of an injured crewmember. A wide variety of seat sizes and configurations can be accommodated on a single spacecraft during a single flight mission.
The seat has multiple sliding panels that are connected in a movable fashion, such as by a basic tongue-in-groove configuration. The shoulder height, thigh length, calf length and armrest height of the seat are all adjustable by sliding the panels in relation to each other. The seat is capable of being articulated in any configuration from folded for stowing to fully extended for use as a stretcher. The seat is easily removable from the frame and/or the vehicle. The seat can be removed in its folded configuration or in any of its size configurations. Furthermore, the seat can be easily removed with a crewmember in the seat, should the need ever arise for a rescue crew to rapidly remove the crewmember without disturbing the body position of the injured crewmember.
Additional advantages and features of the present invention will become apparent from the description that follows, and may be realized by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
In order that the invention may be well understood, there will now be described some embodiments thereof, given by way of example, reference being made to the accompanying drawings, in which:
The seat back assembly and seat bottom assembly each have one panel that is fixed to the frame 11 in a predetermined area. One panel of each assembly is slidably adjustable with respect to the fixed panel. For example, the shoulder height of the seat back assembly is adjustable by sliding an upper back panel 14 with respect to a lower back panel 16. The lower back panel 16 remains fixed in the frame 11. Making adjustments to the shoulder height also adjusts the height of the headrest 18 with respect to seat panels 20 and 22. Likewise, the seat can be adjusted for a variety of thigh lengths by slidably adjusting a front seat panel 22 with respect to a rear seat panel 20. The rear seat panel 20 remains fixed relative to the frame 11 and remains fixed in its position to the lower seat back panel 14.
In a similar manner, the seat has a lower leg panel 26 and a footrest 24 that are slidably engaged with each other. These panels 24, 26 are not engaged to the frame 11. The lower leg panel 26 is hinged to the front seat panel 22 of the seat bottom assembly. A variety of calf lengths can be accommodated by adjusting the footrest 24 with respect to the lower leg panel 26 and the hinged lower leg panel can be adjusted to any angle between being perpendicular to the front seat panel 22, and completely aligned with the front seat panel 22 (not shown in
The armrests 28 are attached to the frame members 11. The armrests 28 are adjustable to different heights along the frame 11 as by slots 29 (see
The panels are locked in place once they are positioned in the desired configurations. There are several ways known to one of ordinary skill in the art in which to slide the panels and hold the slidable panels in the desired configuration and those methods are not shown herein. For example, the panels may be slidable using a tongue-in-groove configuration between two adjacent panels, and then locked in place using a detent or a ball/pinion locking mechanism. Another example may be retractable guides with locking pins. It should be understood that the examples provided herein are not intended to limit the adjustable/locking mechanism of the present invention, but are merely provided as examples of types of mechanisms that may be used to implement the adjustability of the present invention and one skilled in the art could substitute any one of several possibilities to accomplish this aspect of the present invention.
The seat itself is fully articulated so that it can be adjusted in a variety of configurations. The seat bottom assembly is hinged 17 with respect to the frame 11 members. Likewise, the lower leg panel 26 is hinged 15 with respect to the front seat bottom panel 22 and the footrest 24 is hinged 19 as well.
The stretcher configuration shown in
The seat should have a standard configuration for attaching to the spacecraft. A series of attachment points such as with quick-release pins, not shown, hold the seat in position on the spacecraft and provide easy access to removing the seat when necessary. The attachment points are preferably located on a portion of the panel that does not move with respect to its position within the vehicle. The frame member 11 and the lower seat back panel 14 remain fixed relative to each other and the spacecraft. Therefore, it is likely that the attachment system for the seat should be accommodated in any, or all, of these fixed panels. This is so that a seat in any size or folded configuration can be attached to the spacecraft in a uniform manner. The ease of the quick-release pins and their position allows the seat to be removed even with a crewmember still seated. Therefore, in the event of an emergency, the injured crewmember does not have to be moved, or adjusted in order to remove the seat from the vehicle.
Furthermore, the seat, when used in a vehicle, should have a harness system for holding the crewmember in place during take-off, flight, and landing. The harness system can also be used to stabilize a crewmember in the seat's stretcher configuration. The harness system is not shown herein as there are many different systems and the ideal system may depend on the particular vehicle arrangement, the seating arrangement within the vehicle, the type of mission, or any combination thereof.
The flexibility of the seat configurations means that one spacecraft can easily accommodate a crew having multiple variations in body size and weight and a varying number of crewmembers for each flight. The seats 10 can also be easily changed out to reconfigure the spacecraft for a subsequent mission having a completely different crew. A seat can easily be added or removed before, after or even during a mission. This way there will be no extra seats unnecessarily weighing down the vehicle should the number of crewmembers vary from flight to flight for a particular spacecraft.
From the foregoing, it can be seen that there has been brought to the art a new and improved seat for space travel. It is to be understood that the preceding description of the preferred embodiment is merely illustrative of some of the many specific embodiments that represent applications of the principles of the present invention. Clearly, numerous and other arrangements would be evident to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the following claims.
The invention described herein was made in the performance of work under NASA Contract No. NAS8-01099 and is subject to the provisions of Section 305 of the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 (72 Stat.435:42 U.S.C.2457.)