Considering that already today approx. 15% of the world’s population has at least some kind of disability, and the fact that these numbers will be rising further as the population keeps aging in many developed countries, accessibility of in-flight services for passengers with reduced mobility (PRM) becomes a more pressing issue for airlines. With an aim to improve the inflight experience for PRM, J&C Aero developed a concept of a cabin crew’s jump seat that can be transformed into an aisle chair within seconds.
Despite a growing number of passengers with reduced mobility traveling by air, not all airlines include an aisle chair on their flights due to the additional weight and extra space required to store the additional equipment. However, these issues can be mitigated if the aisle chair could be integrated into the basic cabin equipment thus not requiring any additional services each time a PRM travels onboard.
With this in mind, J&C Aero’s engineers developed an upgraded version of the flight attendant’s jump seat that can be transformed by the crew into an aisle chair within seconds. In the core of the convertible jump seat/aisle chair is a folding mechanism that enables an easy switch between wall-fixed and moveable modes. The chair is made of an aluminum frame in order to maintain the lightness of the structure. The height of the chair is approx. 86 cm – this allows more convenient use of the chair when pushing (not pulling) it through the aisle.
“It might not be evident but many people with one or another disability actually struggle during the flight. For example, if a person has vision-related issues it is hard for him or her to distinguish ceiling buttons and call for assistance. Meantime, on many flights, people with mobility disabilities are basically chained to their seats as there are very limited options on how a person can reach the lavatory. With this in mind, we decided to develop a concept that can actually improve in-flight experience for PRM while having minimum impact on an airline’s operational performance. What is particularly exciting, we are already received some positive feedback from our existing customers, and, hopefully, one of the convertible aisle chairs will reach aircraft in the near future,” comments Maksim Jurkov, Head of Design & Airworthiness at J&C Aero.
A detailed presentation of the convertible jump seat/aisle chair is available via this link.