Modern business and executive aircraft may incorporate, in addition to or instead of conventional forward-facing single-passenger seating associated with commercial aircraft, convertible seating configurations able to be reconfigured to allow the occupying passengers to sleep in a prone or near-prone position while inflight. For example, divans (e.g., sofas, couches, settees) may accommodate one or more passengers in a forward-facing, aft-facing, or inboard-facing orientation. Such an aircraft divan may be configured for compliance with any applicable seating regulations, e.g., equipped with seatbelts or harnesses to restrain the occupying passengers in an upright position during taxi, takeoff, and landing (TToL) phases or flight segments. Once the aircraft is inflight and a safe cruising altitude is achieved, the passenger/s may reposition or reconfigure the divan from an upright seated position (e.g., where the seatpan of the divan is substantially parallel to the aircraft floor and the backrest of the divan is substantially perpendicular, or at a slightly obtuse angle, thereto) to a fully extended, or berthed, position wherein the seatpan and backrest of the divan are substantially coplanar with each other and substantially parallel to the aircraft floor.
An occupying passenger may additionally reposition the divan to one or more intermediate reclining or “slouching” positions between the upright position and the berthed position. For example, a slouched position may be characterized by a seatpan at a slightly acute angle to the aircraft floor (e.g., wherein the rear end of the seatpan has dropped from its upright position, the front end of the seatpan has remained in its upright position, and the angle of the backrest to the aircraft floor has slightly increased). However, for the divan to be capable of multiple, or infinite, intermediate positions between the upright and berthed positions may require complex and heavy locking and articulation equipment for securing the divan in the desired intermediate position. Further, the divan may be configured for transition from the upright to the slouched position at least partially assisted by gravity and/or the weight of the occupying passenger. As a result, the transition from the upright to the slouched position, which may involve tracking the rear end of the seatpan along a downward path, may be uncomfortably rapid for the occupying passenger; similarly, achieving the slouched position may result in an abrupt jolt for the occupying passenger.
In one aspect, embodiments of the inventive concepts disclosed herein are directed to a slouching divan (e.g., couch) installable aboard an aircraft. The divan may be of single-, double-, or triple-passenger size and transitionable between three discrete configurations—upright/seated, slouched (e.g., reclined), and berthed (e.g., fully extended for sleeping)—and may regulate the transition between configurations via motion dampers. The divan may be mountable to the aircraft floor (e.g., forward-facing, aft-facing, or inboard-facing) via front and rear legs. The front and rear legs may be connected by frame rails, the frame rails including lateral slots extending from a rear end downward to a midpoint, and then up from the midpoint toward a front end. A seatpan (upon which a seatpan cushion may provide additional comfort for occupying passengers) may incorporate rollers traveling within the lateral slots. For example, when the rollers are at the rear end, midpoint, or front end respectively, the divan may be in the upright, slouched, or berthed configuration. The seatpan may include seatpan rails at the right and left sides. The divan may have a backrest also including roller slots extending from the top of the backrest down to the bottom in a path that curves to the rear. The divan may include a back follower panel (to which a backrest cushion may be attached) connected to the seatpan and connected to the backrest by rollers or bearings. For example, the back follower panel may follow the seatpan as it tracks forward along the lateral slots; the curvature in the backrest roller slots allows the back follower panel to track forward far enough that the backrest and seatpan cushions provide a flat surface (e.g., parallel to the floor) for the occupying passengers to rest upon. Because the seatpan rollers travel downward (e.g., assisted by gravity) when transitioning from the upright to the slouched configuration, the divan may incorporate one-way damping devices to regulate the speed with which the seatpan rollers track forward and downward, and the suddenness with which the rollers stop tracking when the midpoint of the lateral slots is reached and the divan achieves the slouched configuration. The damping devices are one-way in that they do not interfere with the stowing of the divan from the slouched configuration back to the upright configuration (e.g., for taxi, takeoff and landing procedures).
Implementations of the inventive concepts disclosed herein may be better understood when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the included drawings, which are not necessarily to scale, and in which some features may be exaggerated and some features may be omitted or may be represented schematically in the interest of clarity. Like reference numerals in the drawings may represent and refer to the same or similar element, feature, or function. In the drawings:
Before explaining at least one embodiment of the inventive concepts disclosed herein in detail, it is to be understood that the inventive concepts are not limited in their application to the details of construction and the arrangement of the components or steps or methodologies set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. In the following detailed description of embodiments of the instant inventive concepts, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the inventive concepts. However, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the instant disclosure that the inventive concepts disclosed herein may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known features may not be described in detail to avoid unnecessarily complicating the instant disclosure. The inventive concepts disclosed herein are capable of other embodiments or of being practiced or carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
As used herein a letter following a reference numeral is intended to reference an embodiment of the feature or element that may be similar, but not necessarily identical, to a previously described element or feature bearing the same reference numeral (e.g., 1, 1a, 1b). Such shorthand notations are used for purposes of convenience only, and should not be construed to limit the inventive concepts disclosed herein in any way unless expressly stated to the contrary.
Further, unless expressly stated to the contrary, “or” refers to an inclusive or and not to an exclusive or. For example, a condition A or B is satisfied by anyone of the following: A is true (or present) and B is false (or not present), A is false (or not present) and B is true (or present), and both A and B are true (or present).
In addition, use of the “a” or “an” are employed to describe elements and components of embodiments of the instant inventive concepts. This is done merely for convenience and to give a general sense of the inventive concepts, and “a' and “an” are intended to include one or at least one and the singular also includes the plural unless it is obvious that it is meant otherwise.
Finally, as used herein any reference to “one embodiment,” or “some embodiments” means that a particular element, feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the inventive concepts disclosed herein. The appearances of the phrase “in some embodiments” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, and embodiments of the inventive concepts disclosed may include one or more of the features expressly described or inherently present herein, or any combination of sub-combination of two or more such features, along with any other features which may not necessarily be expressly described or inherently present in the instant disclosure.
Broadly, embodiments of the inventive concepts disclosed herein are directed to a slouching aircraft divan with damped motion. The divan is convertible by an occupying passenger between an upright seated configuration into a reclined or “slouched” configuration and a sleeping or “berthed” configuration. Damping devices prevent the transition from the seated to slouched configuration from becoming sudden or jarring without otherwise interfering with the conversion process in either direction. The divan may save weight and complexity by easily locking into one of the above three configurations as opposed to an infinite number of intermediate positions.
Referring to
Referring now to
The seatpan 108 may be connected to the frame rails 106 by roller bearings 126 (or any similarly appropriate tracking members) disposed within lateral roller slots (128) machined into the frame rails. Alternatively, the lateral roller slots 128 may be incorporated (e.g., machined or set) into separate attachable components which may be mounted to the frame rails 106. The lateral roller slots 128 may track substantially forward (e.g., the direction in which the slouching divan 100a is oriented) towards the front end of the seatpan 108. For example, if an occupying passenger wishes to transition the slouching divan 100a into the slouched or berthed configuration, the passenger may do so by articulating the seatpan 108 forward and the forward motion of the seatpan will be regulated by the lateral roller slots 128. The seatpan 108 may be coupled to the back follower panel 120 by a set of J-connectors 130 (or any appropriate linking members) such that forward motion of the seatpan 108 is transmitted to the back follower panel 120, which may follow the motion of the seatpan along a counterpart set of backrest roller slots (132) machined into the backrest 110. The backrest roller slots 132 may curve rearward, such that the distance traveled by the back follower panel 120 in its substantially downward path is slightly increased and the depth achievable by the slouching divan 100a in the berthing configuration (see, e.g.,
The back follower panel 120 and seatpan 108 of the slouching divan 100a may be aligned so that in the upright configuration, the seatpan angle (134; e.g., the angle of the seatpan to the aircraft floor (136), or to the horizontal) is between three and eight degrees, e.g., 4.73 degrees as shown by
Referring in particular to
The seatpan 108 may have, on its left and right sides, a seatpan rail (144) fixed to the seatpan in close proximity to the frame rails 106. Referring also to
Accordingly, the slouching divan 100a may employ a damping system to regulate the rate at which the seatpan 108 tracks from the upright configuration (as shown by
Referring to
When the slouching divan 100b is in the slouched configuration, the included angle 140 between the seatpan 108 and the back follower panel 120 may range from 101 to 111 degrees (e.g., 106.47 degrees as shown by
Referring now to
Referring also to
Referring to
As will be appreciated from the above, a slouching divan according to embodiments of the inventive concepts disclosed herein may provide for optimally comfortable transitions between upright and slouched configurations by regulating the rate of said transitions. Further, the slouching divan saves weight and complexity by being configurable and lockable in three discrete positions rather than an infinite number of possible intermediate positions.
From the above description, it is clear that the inventive concepts disclosed herein are well adapted to carry out the objects and to attain the advantages mentioned herein as well as those inherent in the inventive concepts disclosed herein. While presently preferred embodiments of the inventive concepts disclosed herein have been described for purposes of this disclosure, it will be understood that numerous changes may be made which will readily suggest themselves to those skilled in the art and which are accomplished within the broad scope and coverage of the inventive concepts disclosed and claimed herein.
The instant application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to provisional U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 62/580,925, filed Nov. 2, 2017. Said provisional U.S. Patent Application 62/580,925 is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
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