Why do the seats on airliners face forward?

It is essentially a psychological resistance from the traveling public; people simply resist not facing forward, if they have a choice about it.

There are some military planes where the seats are facing aft, but military personnel are not given much choice about when and how they travel.

In terms of safety, the current seats do provide protection beyond what the human body can tolerate already, and longitudinal deceleration are not the driving factors in terms of risk in case of crash, so there is essentially no gain.

And since planes usually fly with a slight nose up attitude, a rear facing seat would feel awkward to most passengers.

"But the bottom line is really about money. Aft-facing seats require stronger - and consequently heavier - seat backs and floor attachments. As Southwest, the only airline to experiment with backwards seats, discovered through a cost analysis, the increase in weight would not only hurt fuel efficiency but also would force airlines to reduce the number of seats on their planes. That means the FAA must determine how much a change would cost the industry and weigh it against human life. For the purpose of comparison, the FAA considers a human life to be worth $2.2 million."

Full article: http://greensboring.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=5166

i lately replied to a similar question and then requested about persons's adventure. I actually have flown dealing with the rear of the plane in both defense force and civilian plane and to me there's no functional enormous difference. From a secure practices factor of view, the rear dealing with seat is way foremost. Take off isn't an difficulty as seat belts are worn. Nausea isn't an difficulty. that's all right down to psychology i think - maximum everybody is in basic terms no longer attuned to the concept, having been used to shifting round in automobiles and buses (with extraordinary exceptions) dealing with ahead. In those cases - the view is extra effective, yet lets be straightforward, the view out of an plane is amazingly negative for most folk of passengers.

The back of another persons seat will always be in front of you regardless of which way the seats face. I think that facing forward would be better because you would at least be able to see what the attendants are doing as they are go back and forth between the pilot and passengers.

Having ridden in the reverse facing seats of a COD (Carrier Onboard Delivery) is it an uncomfortable ride for me. The cat shot is awful, but the trap is not too bad. Paying passengers would probably not take the idea of riding like that to heart.

reason,,a tiny,but sharp fwd acceleration can snap the neck of someone facing rearwards

a plane 'crashes' al the time into air turbulence,wind shears,from any direction

99% of the time,pilots job is routine,boring,the one % is hell on a rollycoaster,

unpredictable weather patterns,mechanical failure of flight systems,electrical shorts,

other aircraft on collision course.

collision,or decelleration forces with front facing passengers are absorbed by the persons midline mass,transferred

to the seat/cabin floor anchors,

versus the upper seat back with the rear facing passenger

They face forwards mainly because many passengers would feel uncomfortable facing backwards. The seats in buses and trains face forwards for the same reason.

Pilots dont drive aircraft they FLY them. and think about it why do car seats face foward and not backwards? its all for your comfort. and if a plane crashed either way you're either dead or seriously injured.

Basically it's because passengers feel strange sitting backwards in the plane. Yes, it is safer, but if you can't sell tickets to ride on that plane, it's not worth it.

That's a really good question. I had never thought about that. It would make a lot more sense for them to be backwards.