Abstract:
This invention provides an improved, economical layout for passenger aircraft or other vehicle, including two level convertible sleeping accommodation for passengers at night, and a safety harness for each sleeping person. For day the sleeping accommodation are converted back to an one level, regular seating arrangement.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
         [0001]    “Not Applicable” 
         STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT  
         [0002]    “Not Applicable” 
         REFERENCE TO A MICROFICHE APPENDIX  
         [0003]    “Not Applicable” 
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0004]    This invention relates to convertible seat and sleeping berth arrangements for passenger vehicles, and has particular reference to such arrangements for passenger aircraft, although the invention is not limited to that use.  
           [0005]    Shortcoming in conventional cabin arrangements have been recognized since the beginning of commercial aviation, and many ideas have been advanced to improve passenger accommodations. Unfortunately, many of these designs were deemed to be impractical. Of some interest are: Millar, U.S. Pat. No. 2,775,996; Brandt, U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,818; Daines, U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,516; Ferry, U.S. Pat. No. 6,119,980 and Bar-Levav, U.S. Pat. No. 6,237,872;  
           [0006]    Some of prior art require extensive structural changes to an aircraft, other take too much space, or create a usage or maintenance problem.  
         BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0007]    An object of this invention is to provide greater physical and emotional comfort to passengers during long intercontinental and transcontinental journeys, without reducing the number of seats in the aircraft, thus maintaining a reasonable price structure. Repeated opinion surveys confirm that almost universally the single most important feature desired by passengers during long travel is the ability to stretch out for resting or sleeping. The present invention achieves this feature by raising every second seat and converting lower and upper seats to berths for comfortable night sleeping. The upper berths are equipped with coiled ladders, and each berth has a safety harness for a sleeping person. The raising seats are moved up or down by built-in jacking or lifting devices. This invention does not require any structural changes to an airplane or vehicle, only existing seats have to be replaced by the convertible and raised convertible seats and sleeping berths of this invention.  
           [0008]    The above objects and other advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0009]    [0009]FIG. 1 is a side view of a raised convertible seat and sleeping berth, with built in jacking device, in a down position and without a right arm rest.  
         [0010]    [0010]FIG. 2 is a side view of a raised convertible seat and sleeping berth from FIG. 1 in a raised and reclined for sleeping position, without a right arm rest.  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 3 is a front view of the raised convertible seat and sleeping berth from FIG. 1 in a down and seating position.  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 4 is a side view of a raised convertible seat and sleeping berth with built in lifting device, in a down and sitting position.  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 5 is a side view of a raised convertible seat and sleeping berth from FIG. 4 in an upper, reclined and sleeping position.  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 6 is a front view of a raised convertible seat and sleeping berth from FIG. 5, in an upper and sleeping position.  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 7 is a side view of a raised convertible seat and sleeping berth with a guiding column in a seating and down position.  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 8 is a side view of a raised convertible seat and sleeping berth from FIG. 7 in an upper and sleeping position.  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 9 is a front view of a raised convertible seat and sleeping berth from FIG. 8 in an upper and sleeping position.  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 10 is a side view of a convertible seat and sleeping berth in a seating position.  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 11 is a side view of a convertible seat and sleeping berth from FIG. 10 in a sleeping position.  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 12 is a front view of a convertible seat and sleeping berth from FIG. 10 in a seating position.  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 13 is a side view of a line of convertible seats and sleeping berths, and raised convertible seats and sleeping berths with jacking devices, all in seating positions.  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 14 is a side view of a line of seats and sleeping berths from FIG. 13, but all of them in a sleeping position. The raised convertible seats with sleeping berths are shown reclined in their upper positions.  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 15 is a side view of a line of convertible seats and sleeping berths, and raised convertible seats and sleeping berths with lifting devices, all in a seating position.  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 16 is a side view of a line of seats and sleeping berths from FIG. 15, but all in sleeping position. The raised convertible seats with sleeping berths are shown reclined in their upper position.  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 17 is an axonometric view of a safety harness for a sleeping person.  
         [0026]    [0026]FIG. 18 is a plan view of the  747  aircraft with its seating arrangement. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0027]    The present invention is an improvement to utilization of very valuable space in aircrafts, trains, buses and in other vehicles. Some elements used in this invention are very well known, like: Convertible seats and beds, jacking and lifting devices, etc., so they will not be described in great details in this specification.  
         [0028]    Also there are many kinds of jacking and lifting devices, like: Manual, foot operated, mechanical, electric, pneumatic, hydraulic etc. Many of them could be used to raise seats of this invention, so they also will not be described in great details over here.  
         [0029]    The present invention will now be described in details with reference to the accompanying drawings.  
         [0030]    [0030]FIG. 1 shows a side view of the raised convertible seat and sleeping berth  1 , without a right rest arm, in a seating position. There is also a backrest  2 , a base frame  3 , a jacking device  4 , a sliding support  5 , a seat panel  6 , a rotational leg rest  7  ,and a front axel  8 ; Also there is visible a left arm rest  9  and a rear axel  10 .  
         [0031]    [0031]FIG. 2 shows a side view of the raised convertible seat and sleeping berth  1  from FIG. 1 in a sleeping position. The backrest  2  is rotated around the rear axle  10  to an almost horizontal position. There is visible a hinge assembly with a position lock  12  and an up-down bolt  13 . The hinge  12  is attached to a side of the backrest  2 , and the up-down bolt  13  is attached to the left arm rest  9 . In the backrest low position the hinge  12  is held in place by the up-down bolt  13 . In the seating position the backrest with its hinge  12  is held in place by the bolt  13  moved to upper position by a hidden spring. In order to release the backrest from upper to a low position, a push button  11  has to be pushed down in order to lower the up-down bolt  13  and to release the hinge  12  to rotate down. The leg rest  7  is rotated around the axel  8  to its night position, and the sliding support  5  has to be slide out. The jacking devices  4  are remotely controlled by the aircraft crew. FIG. 3 shows a front view of the raised convertible seat and sleeping berth from FIG. 1 in a down and sitting position.  
         [0032]    [0032]FIG. 4 shows a side view of the raised convertible seat and sleeping berth  15  with a lifting device in a low and seating position. There is also visible a lifting device  16  and a right arm rest  14 . Other parts are the same as in FIG. 1.  
         [0033]    [0033]FIG. 5 shows a side view of the raised convertible seat and berth from FIG. 4 in a raised and sleeping position. Except the lifting device  16 , other parts are similar to FIG. 2. FIG. 6 shows a front view of the raised convertible seat and sleeping berth  15  from the FIG. 5.  
         [0034]    [0034]FIG. 7 shows a side view of a raised convertible seat and sleeping berth  17  in a down and seating position. There is visible a backrest  2 , a push button  11 , a guiding column  21  and a seat&#39;s ring  22 .  
         [0035]    [0035]FIG. 8 shows side view of the raised convertible seat and sleeping berth  17  from FIG. 7 in an upper, reclined and sleeping position. There is also shown a hoist lift  18 , a cable  19  with a hook  20  engaged with a seat&#39;s ring  22  and a coiled ladder  26 .  
         [0036]    [0036]FIG. 9 shows a front view of the raised convertible seat and sleeping berth  17  from FIG. 8 in an upper, reclined and sleeping position.  
         [0037]    [0037]FIG. 10 shows a side view of a convertible seat and sleeping berth  24  in a seating position. There is seen a base frame  3 , a sliding support  5 , a push button  11 , a backrest  23  and a leg  25 .  
         [0038]    [0038]FIG. 11 shows a side view of the convertible seat and sleeping berth  24  from FIG. 10 in a reclined and sleeping position.  
         [0039]    [0039]FIG. 12 shows a front view of the convertible seat and sleeping berth  24  from FIG. 10.  
         [0040]    [0040]FIG. 13 shows a line of the convertible seats and sleeping berths  24  and the raised convertible seats and sleeping berths  1  with jacking devices  4  and with coiled ladders  26 , standing behind each other, and all of them in a down and seating position.  
         [0041]    [0041]FIG. 14 shows the same raised and convertible seats and sleeping berths from FIG. 13, but in a sleeping position. The raised convertible seats and sleeping berths  1  are in their upper positions. Also a ceiling support  27  with engaged seat&#39;s insert  28  is shown.  
         [0042]    [0042]FIG. 15 shows a line of the raised convertible seats and sleeping berths  15  and the convertible seats and sleeping berths  24 , standing behind each other, in their down and seating position. Also visible are lifting devices  16  and coiled ladders  26 .  
         [0043]    [0043]FIG. 16 shows the raised convertible seats and sleeping berths  15  in an upper position and the convertible seats and sleeping berths  24  from FIG. 15, but all of them in reclined and sleeping position.  
         [0044]    [0044]FIG. 17 shows a safety harness for sleeping person  31 , with a right arm ring  32 , with a left arm ring  33  and with a main belt  34 . There are also visible clamps  35 , a buckle  38 , and an insert tongue  39 . Wavy parts  40  of the belt  34  are left as a reserve for a movement of a sleeping person. Belt ends  41  will be permanently attached to sides of a back rest. User of this harness will place his or hers arms inside of the proper rings and will lock the buckle with insert on his or hers chest, before going to sleep.  
         [0045]    [0045]FIG. 18 shows a plan view of a  747  aircraft  42  with a seating arrangement. Seats in the high ceiling area marked with dots could be easily converted to convertible seats and sleeping berths of this invention.