Aircraft interior lavatory
AssigneeB/E Aerospace, Inc.
InventorsDonald F. COOK, Liberty HARRINGTON, Philipp Steiner, Robert K. BRAUER, Trevor Skelly
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A lavatory for an aircraft cabin includes a wall having a forward wall portion disposed immediately aft of and substantially conforming to an exterior aft surface of an aircraft cabin structure, such as a passenger seat, that is substantially not flat in a vertical plane. The forward wall portion includes a forward projection over an aft portion of the adjacent passenger seat. The forward wall portion can define a secondary space in the interior lavatory space, which can provide an amenity stowage space, and can include design elements providing visual space.
Claims18
(canceled)
An aircraft lavatory for a cabin of an aircraft, the aircraft lavatory comprising:
- a forward wall partition configured to be disposed proximate to and aft of a passenger seat and including an exterior surface having a shape that is substantially not flat, the forward wall partition including
- at least one first recess configured to receive at least a portion of an upwardly and aftwardly inclined seat back of the passenger seat therein, and
- at least one second recess configured to receive at least a portion of an aft-extending seat support of the passenger seat therein when at least a portion of the upwardly and aftwardly inclined seat back of the passenger seat is received within the at least one first recess;
- wherein the at least one first recess and the at least one second recess cooperate to provide additional space forward of the aircraft lavatory for said aft-extending seat support to be positioned further aft in the cabin when compared with a position of said aft-extending seat support if said forward wall partition was instead substantially flat.
A method for reducing a volume of unusable space in a cabin area of a passenger aircraft, comprising:
- replacing at least a previously-installed forward wall of a pre-existing full height lavatory unit in the cabin area of the passenger aircraft with a contoured forward wall, wherein
- an outward facing vertical surface of the previously-installed forward wall is substantially flat, and
- the contoured forward wall comprises
- at least one lower recess adjacent the floor the cabin area, and
- an upper recess above the at least one lower recess;
- and
- installing a passenger seat in front of the contoured forward wall, wherein the passenger seat comprises an upwardly and aftwardly inclined seat back, and a seat support including an aft-extending portion;
- wherein, upon installation,
- the upper recess receives at least a portion of the upwardly and aftwardly inclined seat back of the passenger seat, and
- the at least one lower recess receives at least a portion of the aft-extending portion of the seat support,
- thereby permitting the passenger seat to be positioned farther aft in the cabin area than was possible with the previously-installed forward wall.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.