Aircraft bag-rack with an illuminated handrail

A combination bag-rack and handrail structure for an aircraft interior, comprising:

• a bag-rack mounted on an aircraft interior structure and forming a compartment between the bag-rack and the interior structure;
• a handrail providing generally full hand gripping thereof by a user;
• means for securely mounting said handrail on said bag-rack at a position relative thereto in which said handrail is spaced a desired distance from said bag-rack;
• and
• a light, forming a part of said handrail about which the user may extend a full hand grip and, said light positioned so that it generally faces said compartment for illuminating said compartment and a desired portion of said handrail said bag-rack and handrail mounted generally along the length of the vehicle.

A combination bag-rack and handrail structure for an aircraft interior, comprising:

• a bag-rack mounted on an aircraft interior structure, said bag-rack having a recess at a lower front portion thereof;
• a lid hingedly connected to said bag-rack for selectively providing user access thereto;
• a handrail having a channel at a back portion thereof and having a generally triangular cross-sectional shape, one of the triangle corners generally rounded off, said handrail having cross-sectional dimensions selected to enable said one of the triangle corners to be generally in contact with inner surfaces of the user's knuckles and another of the triangle corners to generally in contact with the inner surfaces of the user's finger small joints and the other of the triangle corners to be generally in contact with inner surfaces of the user's thumb and forefinger joint when gripping said handrail in order to provide full hand gripping thereof by a user;
• means for mounted said handrail on said bag-rack in an area partly defined by said recess at a position in which said handrail is spaced from the recess a distance selected to enable the user's fingers and knuckles to fit between said handrail and recess when gripping said handrail;
• an electroluminescent panel strip light mounted in the channel and positioned so that said light generally faces the recess in order that unreflected light emitted therefrom generally only illuminates said bag-rack and light emitted therefrom which is reflected from the recess back-illuminates said handrail.