I’ve been working lately on a freelance project for stress analysis of aircraft seat designs and structures so this caught my eye as my project is part of the effort to comply with the new FAA standards for safer seats on all new planes.
Seattle Times - FAA Requires Safer Seats on New Planes explains:
After 17 years, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has completed work on requiring passenger aircraft to have stronger seats, designed to increase the survivability of passengers and flight attendants in accidents.
The new rule, which affects aircraft built after October 2009, says the seats must be able to withstand 16 times the force of gravity, compared with the 9g standard in effect since 1952. Floors and the tracks the seats ride on also must be able to withstand those forces.
The new seats must undergo a battery of tests to determine their strength, similar to the crash tests that automakers must comply with to meet federal safety standards.
The new standard applies only to new planes, and may apply to planes undergoing massive refits, though it will now not be forced upon planes outside of those qualifications. Most planes built in the 1990s included near 16g qualified seats, so those are also excluded from any modifications.
