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Beckenham_Boy
29th Apr 2009, 20:13
I have always wondered...

Why Don't Aircraft Toilets Have Windows?

Cheers:ok:

BB

Chesty Morgan
29th Apr 2009, 20:17
Privacy. Frosted glass is too heavy.

Rainboe
29th Apr 2009, 20:25
Some do. In BA, premium washrooms do have windows. When you slide the lock, the glass changes to frosted magically. It must have an LCD film in it. Very swish.

Haven't a clue
29th Apr 2009, 20:32
But when I am changing into my pyjamas before pushback I always lower the blind - I really am suspicious of technology and it doesn't seem to "frost" on the ground. I'd hate to be ejected from my flight for inadvertantly flashing my netherbits at the world at large.......

Ten West
29th Apr 2009, 20:58
So you can't sneak out of the window without paying. ;)

deltayankee
29th Apr 2009, 21:38
It also discourages people from hanging around more than strictly necessary to enjoy the view.

parabellum
30th Apr 2009, 00:02
But when I am changing into my pyjamas before pushback


And a fine site you will look on a dark and stormy wet winters night when the aircraft aborts TO and evacuates you! Running over the muddy grass, in the pouring rain, in your panjams and slippers! Often wondered why people change before and not after TO.

Sober Lark
30th Apr 2009, 09:42
They do On Etihad.

I always get a laugh when I go in to find the previous person had pulled down the window blind obviously worried that someone outside may be able to see them sitting on the throne.

PAXboy
30th Apr 2009, 10:39
Save money on production? Perhaps there is some saving on a plain panel, rather than the window and it's fittings.

Bushfiva
30th Apr 2009, 10:49
Oooh, a loo with a view. If there was a shelf of magazines in there, I'd probably try booking it.

seneca208
30th Apr 2009, 10:57
Im pretty sure its a Boeing/Airbus thing. I've never seen a Boeing aircraft lavatory with windows, but every Airbus lavatory has had a window.

radeng
30th Apr 2009, 11:31
Not every Airbus lavatory has windows - the one I was on last night didn't. There was supposed to have been a complaint from an American woman on Concord that somebody could look in on her while she was on the loo. that was when they were over the Atlantic.....

kharmael
30th Apr 2009, 16:29
VC10 does! :ok:

xraydice
30th Apr 2009, 16:38
VC10 does! http://static.pprune.org/images/smilies/thumbs.gif yes but they are are outside !!

racedo
30th Apr 2009, 21:46
Because the Neighbours were complaining of too many scantily clad people using the loo.

OFSO
3rd May 2009, 14:14
Never mind the frosted/clear glass debate, why don't the windows open so you can clear the previous toilet user's reasty fumes from the air ?

R

Rhyspiper
3rd May 2009, 14:20
Never mind the frosted/clear glass debate, why don't the windows open so you can clear the previous toilet user's reasty fumes from the air ?

To stop pigeons coming on board....

The_Banking_Scot
3rd May 2009, 17:30
hi,

Two aircraft that I have been on have windows in some of the toilets;

(1) BA 747 in First class - the forwardmost toilet has a window)
(2) Finnair A340- business class toilests had windows ( VS A340 did not IIRC)

Regards

TBS

flyin_phil
3rd May 2009, 18:48
slightly changing the subject a bit... still on the window topic though,

why is there at least 1 row with a plain wall and not a window, notibaly the 737-800 or i think the 767 (ba anyway) in front of the wing, is it a structural thing on an aircraft?

rafo26
3rd May 2009, 19:03
That gap in the windows is where the air conditioning ducting runs up to the over head panels from the air cycle machine just forward of the gear:ok:

deltayankee
3rd May 2009, 20:10
That gap in the windows is where the air conditioning ducting runs

If you ever sit there you can clearly hear the air rushing through the duct.

But, to get back on topic, why didn't Boeing route the duct through one of the toilets?

Albert Square
4th May 2009, 09:42
Is the gap in the windows (forward of the wing) for protection in the event of an uncontained engine failure?

rafo26
4th May 2009, 14:22
I'd imagine its just down to the position of the packs as to why the ducting is routed this way and better to have no window rather then extra weight of more ducting routing it through one of the toilets!Anyway imagine us men having a window to look out when where in the toilet,god help the poor woman using it after us!!

smudgethecat
4th May 2009, 15:56
Your talking complete boloxs rafo
http://www.smartcockpit.com/data/pdfs/plane/boeing/B767/instructor/B767_Air_Conditioning.pdf

SLF3b
4th May 2009, 17:41
Because they want you to focus on your aim, not the view.

OFBSLF
4th May 2009, 19:53
Im pretty sure its a Boeing/Airbus thing. I've never seen a Boeing aircraft lavatory with windows, but every Airbus lavatory has had a window.

No windows in the lavatories on the JetBlue A320s that I flew on last week.

rafo26
4th May 2009, 21:34
"Your talking complete boloxs rafo"

So where exactly is the air con routed on the 738 smudgecat??

frequentflyer2
4th May 2009, 22:16
I think all airline toilets may have windows but not to allow passengers to gaze out at the clouds.
I recently sat in row one of an aircraft. A lady went into the forward lavatory. I was reading the inflight magazine but I was waiting for her to come out.
I was engrossed in what I was reading so I wasn't watching what was going on.
After 10 minutes I got up and tried to open the lavatory door. It was locked so I thought the lady was still inside.
I realised she had been in for a while and as soon as a cabin crew member came to the front of the aircraft I pointed this out to him.
He too believed she was still in the lavatory and lifted the receiver of the phone above the cabin crew seats.
He dialled a number and listened intently. He then went to the lock on the lavatory door and appeared to flip it up, presumably revealing some kind of very small window.
He peered in and realised there was no-one inside. The door had somehow locked itself when the lady came out.
As I was reading I had not noticed her go past my seat.
Presumably the flight attendant's use of the phone means they must also be able to listen to what's going on in the toilets.

beamender99
4th May 2009, 22:29
Examples of loos with a view

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y22/chrisrad/Thai/holiday32.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2166/2368215785_f024484810.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/98/248145013_f342715803.jpg

grd eng
4th May 2009, 22:46
Some American Airlines B707`s fwd toilets (A + B) had a window.
More of a small porthole...but you could see out ok.

WHBM
5th May 2009, 14:22
As you see described above, there are a range of options which have been fitted over the years for window/no window, independent of type or operator. Because what an airline gets from the aircraft manufacturer is essentially a standard empty aluminium tube, with windows where the manufacturer saw fit. Airlines then each do their own internal arrangement of seats, galleys and toilets to meet their particular requirements and standards, also changing these with time, and windows in the toilets comes an awful long way down the priorities. Obviously in widebodies there are mid-cabin toilet units where you can't have a window anyway.

Boeing have a bad habit of taking sometimes one, sometimes several, window positions abeam the wing leading edge, as described above to route their various technical services, leading to a window-seat-with-no-window arrangement; Airbus seem to have managed to avoid this. Likewise on some rear-engned jets you can find one or more windowless rows at the back.

THe Hawker Siddeley 748 as configured by British Airways some years ago had a rear toilet with not only a window, but the emergency exit in there as well.

Is the gap in the windows (forward of the wing) for protection in the event of an uncontained engine failure? Not on a jet, where big problems tend to go out of the exhaust anyway, but on propeller planes you are on the right lines, and you will find on these that not only is there no window directly in the plane of the propellers, but if you look at the fuselage from the outside at this point you may see strengthening strips attached to the fuselage. When propeller de-icing is in use (the black strips along the edges of the propeller blades), tyically in cold, wet clouds, the ice will be slung off the props by centrifugal force and hit the fuselage just here, actually quite hard, a bit disconcerting for someone at a window (but a good sound for the aircrew to hear it working). No window there also reduced prop noise in the cabin a bit.

gdiphil
11th May 2009, 16:41
The old Bristol Britannia's had little round windows as I recall.

TopBunk
11th May 2009, 17:53
Presumably the flight attendant's use of the phone means they must also be able to listen to what's going on in the toilets.

On the flight deck have a cctv network installed post 9/11 so that we can 'see' what is happening in there - and in the cabin crew bunk areas - not to mention the lie flat bed areas. The cameras can be switched (in full colour) onto the displays in front of us at our command. It helps pass the nighttime hours on longhaul.

The phone call you saw was the cabin crew member phoning the flight crew to ask them to tell them what was happening using the cctv, not the cabin crew member listening in. We are specially vetted as flight crew to have acess to possibly very personal information, much as the operators of the latest 'see through' scanners in the sirports are. Cabincrew are not so authorised.

I hope that puts everyones mind at rest.

Big Brother rules

Nicholas49
11th May 2009, 18:50
TopBunk - is that also the case on short-haul jets such as the 738 and A320?

ReadyToGo
18th May 2009, 11:02
Eastern Airways Saab 2000 aircraft have a little window IIRC

RTG!

NutLoose
18th May 2009, 11:37
xraydice (http://www.pprune.org/members/215109-xraydice)





Quote:
VC10 does! http://static.pprune.org/images/smilies/thumbs.gif
yes but they are are outside !!


They used to polish the Aluminium toilet bowl surround to a mirror finish on the VIP VC10 when it did Royals, I often wondered if The Queen used to appreciate the fact the top of the toilet was like a mirror. :cool:

Munnyspinner
18th May 2009, 22:12
I don't believe HM Queen actually ever needs to go to the loo. And Never on an aeroplane.

Suzeman
20th May 2009, 18:46
Flew once on a DC-6 with a large window in the bog. Very nice too - and so was the flight !!

Suzeman

HZ123
21st May 2009, 21:33
NutLose; Got to correct you they were brand new toilets that is why they shone. Can't do it now as they are grey plastic- no class!

vs69
21st May 2009, 22:20
Nope they are stainless steel with a PTFE coating!

Dimitrii
25th May 2009, 02:20
Maybe someone here can help me remember an aircraft I was on about 15 years ago that had the largest aircraft lav I have ever seen. It was approx 30 seat prop plane that you entered in the rear. The door to the lav was opposite of the exit door. When you opened the lav door it latched open to the other side of the plane so the aisle and exit door were all your private domain. To fit the thread there was a window in the exit door and maybe on the other side as well.

scooby79
25th May 2009, 07:07
On the flight deck have a cctv network installed post 9/11 so that we can 'see' what is happening in there

Thats funny:)

PAXboy
25th May 2009, 15:52
Dimitrii I cannot be sure which a/c you refer to but I know that the British Aerospace Jetsreams had such a configuration. They are twin turbo props and the larger J41 has 29 or 30, depending on the airline.

As I recall, the a/c was usually entered at the front and had a 1+2 seating layout. The read door was used for loading catering more than pax. The loo door did indeed open out to block the rear part of the cabin and some other parts of it all folded and tucked away as a clever solution.

Flapping_Madly
25th May 2009, 18:48
Now about these full colour cctv cameras in the bogs. Whereabouts are they?
Are they in the ceiling or the corners or behind the mirror? They are not under the seat are they ???:eek:

I ask because I would like to ensure the crew always see the best of me,so if I know where the cameras are I can be sure I'm pointing my best bit towards them.:E