You've Come A Long Way Baby Aircraft Accommodations Have Dramatically Improved Since the Beginning of Air Flight

World Airline News, Feb 19, 1999

In his 1922 trip to Europe, Edward Warner, aeronautics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, flew on a number of different European airliners. His observations, from seat belts to carry-on baggage, show how far aviation has come in the 77 years since, and how many of the safety and design issues of concern when commercial airline flight was in its infancy, remain topics of discussion to this day.

Warner reported on the comforts and discomforts of flying now- obscure aircraft like the Farman Goliath and the Potez IX, amassing some 2,000 miles of travel in six distinct types of aircraft. Herewith, extracts of his Technical Note No. 113, "Report of the General Design of Commercial Aircraft," submitted to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.

Report of the General Design of Commercial Aircraft

* Seats and seat belts:...most of the designs are much alike, being fitted with wicker chairs having low backs and cushions about two inches thick. The conspicuous exception is the Fokker (F.III), which is fitted with leather-upholstered seats, the cushions of which are some 12 inches deep and sprung more easily than any automobile seat cushion. The effect on the passenger is somewhat similar to that of making him the stationary element of a seismograph, the airplane rising and falling in bumps while the seat cushions give the passenger the impression that he is stationary in space while the airplane moves around him.

Safety belts are provided only in the Spad (the single-engine Spad 33). Their provision seems to me unwise. They are useless unless they are fastened all the time, and an ordinary passenger will not strap himself in except after a lecture on the dangers of accident, which will want to make him abandon the trip altogether...it is better to fasten the chairs down and to make their arms of such form that it is easy to hold on in case of a rough landing.

* Ventilation: There is no doubt that most cases of airsickness are due to insufficient ventilation of the cabin... In no case is there any evidence, in the airplanes under discussion, of elaborate provision for forced ventilation. There usually are small openings in the roof of the cabin (in the Handley-Page, for example) which serve for the outflow of air, but the primary dependence is placed on the windows, which can be open or closed as the passengers desire. This works out very well in warm weather, but it would of course be almost impossible to keep the cabin heated to a comfortable temperature in winter if it has to be ventilated by opening windows directly beside passengers. The windows are generally arranged to slide horizontally, only a small part of the glass on each side being movable.

* Noise:...the DH 34 is much the quietest. It is possible to converse inside the cabin of that airplane, even when the window is open, without shouting to an uncomfortable extent.

* Materials: Lace curtains and similar ornaments were not only unnecessary but positively dangerous, owing to their inflammability.

* Cabin doors: On the Fokker a steel bar is lowered across the door and locked in place, so that the weight of a passenger leaning out of the window falls on the bar and not on the door itself. Parenthetically, I may remark that such precautions do little good unless they are used, and that on my flight from Brussels to Amsterdam the mechanic who closed the door forgot to lower the bar.

* Baggage: The storage of baggage is a problem of considerable and growing importance, especially in view of the number of tourists crossing from England to the continent by air and who want to take with them everything that they own. The carrying of baggage in the cabin can only be considered a temporary makeshift, and the only real solution is...a special compartment.

* Pilot's position: (Prof. Warner discussed three alternatives he saw: up forward, on top, or in the rear of the passenger cabin) There have been too many accidents on airplanes with the pilot in the rear, where one or several passengers have been killed or badly hurt while the pilot has escaped uninjured. ...The safety of passengers must be the first consideration. The pilot is paid to take the risk; the passengers are not.

* Lavatory Accommodations: These are provided on the Handley- Page, DH 34 and Goliath. They cannot be regarded as fully satisfactory in any instance, the arrangement on the Handley-Page being superior to the other two. The placing of the door there to secure a minimum sacrifice of space is very neat...

* Number of engines: The choice between the single-engined and the two engined-airplane is of course largely influenced by considerations of safety, either real or imaginary...The two-engine type has...an undeniable psychological advantage. Passengers, both novices and those with some experience, testify to an increased sense of security in seeing two engines in full operation. (With thanks to Dr. John Lauber, Airbus' vice president of training and human factors, for providing a copy of Prof. Warner's report)