Seating arrangement
An improved seating system is provided for vehicles, including military vehicles. Center-facing seats are staggered to provide for a narrow vehicle profile, improved ingress and egress, and increased blast survivability. Seats may be reclined or reclinable, and seats may have seat pans upwardly movable away from a center aisle between rows of seats to increase an effective width of the aisle for improved ingress and egress.
1. A narrow-profile vehicle, comprising:
a first row of spaced apart seats facing center;
a second row of spaced apart seats opposite the first row, the second row also facing center, wherein each seat in the first row is directly across from space between seats in the second row and each seat in the second row is directly across from space between seats in the first row; and
each seat in each row being reclineable to an angle of at least about 45 degrees from a vertical axis.
2. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the seats are reclineable from about 15 to about 40 degrees from a vertical axis.
3. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the seats are reclined from about 5 to about 45 degrees from a vertical axis.
4. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the seats are crew seats or squad seats and are reclined from about 20 to about 30 degrees from a vertical axis.
5. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein a lower portion of a vehicle frame is V-shaped at an angle akin to the recline angle of the seat.
6. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the seats are mounted to a floor suspended from a vehicle structure.
7. The vehicle of claim 6 , wherein the floor is covered at least in part with a blast mat.
8. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of an interior surface of the vehicle is covered with an energy absorbing material.
9. The vehicle of claim 1 , wherein seats in at least one of the first or second row each have seat pans upwardly pivotable away from a center aisle, the center aisle being between the first and the second row of seats.
10. A vehicle, comprising:
a first row of a plurality of spaced apart reclined seats facing center;
a second row of a plurality of spaced apart reclined seats opposite the first row, the second row also facing center, wherein each seat in the first row is directly across from space between seats in the second row and each seat in the second row is directly across from space between seats in the first row, each space between seats including a structure for stowage of gear;
an aisle between the first row and the second row; and
a plurality of seat pans of at least one seat in at least one of the first or second row are biased upwardly, thereby increasing an effective width of the aisle for ingress and egress when unoccupied.
11. The vehicle of claim 10 wherein the structure for stowage comprises a securement mechanism for a weapon.
12. The vehicle of claim 10 wherein each seat is reclined from about 5 to about 45 degrees from a vertical axis.
13. The vehicle of claim 12 wherein each seat has an adjustable reclining mechanism.
14. The vehicle of claim 12 wherein the seats are mounted to a floor suspended from a vehicle structure.
15. The vehicle of claim 14 wherein the vehicle includes walls angled to accommodate the recline angle of the seats.
16. A vehicle, comprising:
a first row of spaced apart seats facing center, the seats having seat pans biased upwardly;
a second row of spaced apart seats opposite the first row, the second row also facing center and having seat pans biased upwardly, wherein each seat in the first row is directly across from space between seats in the second row and each seat in the second row is directly across from space between seats in the first row;
each space between seats comprises a structure or compartment for stowage of gear; and
each seat in each row being reclined at an angle of from about 5 degrees to about 45 degrees from a vertical axis.
17. The vehicle of claim 16 wherein the seats are mounted to a floor suspended from a vehicle hull.
18. The vehicle of claim 17 further including a blast mat on the floor.
19. The vehicle of claim 16 wherein the vehicle has walls angled to accommodate the recline angle of the seats.
20. The vehicle of claim 16 wherein the structure for stowage comprises a securement mechanism for a weapon.