Abstract: A seating unit for a passenger vehicle, especially an aircraft, has a reclinable seat back connected to a seating portion by a hinge. A slider is mounted in a guide track and supports the hinge. A pivotally connected front strut supports the seating portion at a location in front of the hinge. A pivotally connected rear strut supports the seat back at a location spaced apart from the hinge. As the slider along the guide track, the seat back moves to an orientation substantially coplanar with the seating portion so as to provide a flat surface for a sleeping passenger.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
August 1, 2000
Date of Patent:
July 2, 2002
Assignee:
Britax Rumbold Limited
Inventors:
John Robert Higgins, Simon Lunn, Benedict Nicholas Samuels
Abstract: A vehicle seat, such as an aircraft passenger seat, has a seat back which is reclinable from a normal substantially vertical orientation, and a seat pan which is tiltable between a normal substantially horizontal orientation and a tilted orientation in which its front edge is lower than its rear edge. The seat pan has a rear portion adjacent to the seat back which is substantially horizontal when the main portion of the seat pan is in its tilted orientation.
Abstract: The seat pan of an aircraft passenger sleeper seat is mounted on a pivot axle for movement between a normal substantially horizontal position and a tilted position in which its front edge is lower than its rear edge. The seat back comprises a first portion which is mounted for angular movement between a substantially upright position and a reclined position, and a second portion mounted on a pivot axle for movement between an erect position in which it is substantially parallel to the first portion and a reclined position in which its upper edge is lower than when in its erect position. When the seat pan is tilted and the second portion of the seat back is reclined, their upper surfaces form a substantially plane support surface for a sleeping passenger.