This "NEW" thing of hosties selling stuff...

[3WE]

What is your industry coming too? Evanie, TeeVee and I object to FAs being made into peddlers! They are there to provide beverage and snack services first and safety second. There is no place for this modern sales practice.

DA8F9FF0-4FD2-44E4-B4C0-E995845B1A13.png (1.32 MiB) Viewed 5214 times

Footnote/Disclaimer: Those MIGHT have been free since it was back in the “glory days”?

[elaw]

Never mind the sales stuff, I'm hung up on the cool old photo!

I wonder what kind of aircraft that was? Obviously twin-aisle, obviously early. I'm gonna guess L-1011 because I like L-1011s.

Are those air vents at the top of the seatbacks?

[flyboy2548m]

Never mind the sales stuff, I'm hung up on the cool old photo!

I wonder what kind of aircraft that was? Obviously twin-aisle, obviously early. I'm gonna guess L-1011 because I like L-1011s.

Are those air vents at the top of the seatbacks?

Good question, I don't think I've seen anything like those "vents" before. Seems a strange place for a vent, especially since it doesn't appear adjustable, and besides, running air through the seat seems...odd.

The shape of the overhead bins as well as the positions of the windows relative to the seats suggests a DC-10. On the -1011 the windows were just slightly higher.

Too bad the photo is B/W. The colors of the scarf might have given a clue as to the operator.

[elaw]

Yeah, a little Googling reveals a couple of other photos with similar-looking seatbacks and they're in DC-10s. Could find no such thing on the L-1011 although there are fewer photos.

The air vent thing does sound weird to me too, but couldn't think of anything else. Except... maybe some kind of ashtray?

Or... a very primitive seatback IFE system with a 1" circular screen? Yeah, that's got to be it.

[Not_Karl]

Look for "DC-10" here and there are more seatventphotos. My guess is that they channel the farts from the passenger in front to the one behind them.

Too bad the photo is B/W. The colors of the scarf might have given a clue as to the operator.

Swissair, apparently.

[elaw]

Actually if you look at this high-res photo, it really does look like they're air vents.

Unless, being Swissair, maybe they're specialized knife holders?

[Not_Karl]

Mail Box
March 7, 1997 12:01 am ET
Q I recently flew across the Pacific on a DC-10. To my dismay, this aircraft had none of those little air blowers above the seat, so I was really uncomfortable. Is this how McDonnell Douglas designed the plane?

-- R.L. Pickett, Long Beach, Miss.

A Yes. According to a spokesman for McDonnell Douglas Corp., the aircraft has never had the blowers. But you may find little air vents in the back of each seat, which is an optional feature in the plane's design. Supposedly, these vents are even better than the overhead air blowers. "In the original design, that was one of the features we bragged about," says a spokesman for McDonnell Douglas.

In case you're curious, the overall air-conditioning system on DC-10s works this way: Air from the outside is sucked in through the engines and circulated into the cabin from ceiling vents; it then flows out of the cabin through floor vents. A complete change of air occurs every three minutes. Air blowers and seat vents supplement this system, blowing cabin air around.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB857689723853023500

If I recall correctly older Douglas and more-current Ilyushin widebodies had an option for gaspers in the seatbacks.

https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=776015

Here they are in a DC-8.

[flyboy2548m]

777s don't have overhead gaspers either.

[monchavo]

777s don't have overhead gaspers either.

They don't. It always bothered me. The reason I figured is because the headroom is quite high and some people wouldn't be able to reach them.
They do look like gaspers - when you say "not adjustable" they do appear at least partly so - notice the one a couple of rows in front?