Looking at most of the "classic" homebuilt designs, it seems that occupant comfort is an afterthought or very low on the list of design requirements. They are getting better, but it still appears that proper ergonomics and human factors are still pretty low. With all the recent "Design for..." threads, I thought the time was right to discuss occupant comfort as a primary design objective. Sure, we hear of "wide cockpits" and "headroom" as comfort items, but little else. I'm building a full scale fuselage mockup so that I can tweak the final design to fit my needs and those of my wife - in other words, from the cockpit out. I want an airplane that is comfortable for an all day trip - just as my car is. I'm looking to model the cockpit after my Corvette, which I find supremely comfortable for hours on end. Those dimensions drive the shape of the airplane.
Big focus items include:
Big focus items include:
- Comfortable seat (of course)
- Proper body position (legs and arms)
- Control placement
- Panel layout
- Environmental (HVAC, noise, O2, etc)
- Accessable storage (food, water, etc)
- In flight relief
