C5 question

[Citationkid]

Any one know why the cabin seats in the C5 face backwards? I managed to get a ride in one today (through CAP) and none of the other guys I flew with knew.

Thanks.

 

[TonyC]

Any one know why the cabin seats in the C5 face backwards? I managed to get a ride in one today (through CAP) and none of the other guys I flew with knew.

Thanks.

Rear-facing seats are safer in a crash - - in a sudden stop the energy of the body is absorbed by the entire seatback, as opposed to a seatbelt and shoulder harness in a forward-facing configuration.

I would GUESS that rear-facing seats engineered to sustain X number of G's are lighter in weight than forward-facing seats that meet the same G rating. My guess is the weight savings is the REASON why they face aft on the C-5.

I also guess that commercial airliners would use rear-facing seats if PASSENGERS felt comfortable riding backwards, but they don't, so the heavier, forward-facing seats prevail.

 

[Citationkid]

Thanks for the quick answer. I never thought of the weight savings idea. I guess with no windows it doesn't matter which way the seats are facing as far as the passengers are concerned.

 

[dudemize]

Did you do your CAP flight at Dover? I think I remember seeing one on the scheduling board in my squadron.

 

[Citationkid]

Yes, it was out of Dover on 690018. I think we did air to air refueling, but I couldn't tell. Not much of a view in the back.

 

[dudemize]

That was my squadron then, how many people were on there? I'm surprised you didn't get to go up front.

 

[Citationkid]

There were about 50 people. I got upfront for about ten minutes once we left the tanker and were heading home which was awesome. There were so many other people upfront that I just felt like I was in the way. 14 of the kids were in the cockpit for about an hour for the re-fueling part and a bunch of others were for the takeoff (I could've been, but gave my seat up to another kid who had never flown before).