I don't think you could actually transpose the seats left and right when reversing them on a 3+2 configuration, for a start the overhead PSUs also suit 3 on one side and 2 on the other.


My hunch would be that one chap starts at the front, one at the back, and there would be an end-of-shift beer on who was the quicker :) If done properly I would also expect that they would check/sign off each other's work.

I recall travelling in Comets 4B with rear facing seats as well. These would be Dan Air and Air Tours from memory, and seat had a table between these and seats facing the other way as I remember (early 1970,s)
Regards
Mr Mac

As a BEA Apprentice in 1968 working in the Charter office I got a jolly on a Vanguard ( G-APEJ )
to Malta carrying a film crew with Antony Newley and Joan Collins.The first class cabin
was utilised for the delicate camera and lighting equipment except for a row of seats
for the stars.Best part of the trip was the ferry back to LHR sitting in the P4 seat.
Spectacular views of the Alps and a very rainy/windy landing.Fleet Manager Vanguards
in charge.Lots of ribbons on the uniform.Most impressive to a 19 year old.In those days
Malta was used for BEA crew training.

But nor can you simply turn the double seats 180° and re-install them on the same side, because the legs are offset from the centreline of the seat.

So how was it done?

Rearward Facing Seats


Britannia's in RAF service had rearward facing seats with 38-inch seat pitch in normal seating configuration, pitch was reduced to 36-inchs if more Pax were to be crammed in.
Photos from my album below.
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...tionMedium.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...bin3Medium.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...bin2Medium.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...MedEvacLay.jpg

I can remember travelling in bua 1-11s in the late 60s with rearward seats. On a smooth flight you forgot you were travelling "backwards" until the landing! Quite strange but felt safe.

Can you by any chance remember whether the triple seats were fitted on the port or starboard side?

I remember rearward facing seats on tridents and of course much more recently on BA Club 747 and Triples. People seemed quite happy with them and as I like a window seat I usually opted for them on BA long haul. Definately a mostly British ideas and mostly on aircraft with less than spectacular deck angles on take off. Being in the rearward facing block of four 'facing seats might have been a more peculiar feeling lets say on an MD80 a type I flew on a very large number of times in Scandi land and on a short ARN-CPH or HEL hop went up like a rocket.
Not all British though since while writing this it reminded me that on American Eagle ATR42/72 around the Caribbean in the 1980s the first row were rear facing

BAC1-11 seats.
2 on the left and 3 on the right.

I've just found some pics by googling BAC1-11 interiors.
There is one seat plan for Mohawk that is a bit of a mixture.
Some fwd, some rearward, and also a mix of 2+3 and 2+2

First row is rear facing on Binter Canarias ATR-72's.

A whole range of types and carriers have configured a small number of rearward facing seats over time. Southwest in the USA used to rig out all their 737s with two or three such layouts in the cabin, they were known as "lounge" seating areas. Although just free seating, like the rest of Southwest, they apparently filled up last, unless there was a large business group or family travelling.

Boeing 737-2H4/Adv - Southwest Airlines | Aviation Photo #0171114 | Airliners.net


The picture shows the rearward seats were different in shape to the regular forward ones, with a higher but sharply tapered seat back. This is just the same as the Britannia seats pictured higher up the thread. I've seen these Brit seats before and have always wondered why they had such a strange shape, and whether people had narrower heads a generation ago ...

The Southwest layout was apparently changed to a standard all-forward arrangement when the 16g seat restraint requirement came in. I wonder what aspect required this.

Yes, the standard One-Eleven configuration was 2L+3R, we all remember that.

But my question was specifically about how BUA reconfigured their seats for trooping flights so that they faced rearwards.

Back to the original query, I remember when flying from LHR to Belfast, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Manchester in the mid 60s, if we saw that the aircraft was a 951, a quickening of the pace out to the rear door could result in a right turn on entry to get a first class seat for an internal flight, in the days before seat allocation.

Rear facing seats on BEA aircraft
 

The main reason for the seats that faced the rear on the BEA (British European Airways) aircraft was that you had a table between the opposing seats. this was for baby carry cots.

There were no bassinets in those days you put the child in their carry cot carried them on to the aircraft & popped them on the table.

If there were no babies travelling these people had a very handy table for their use.

It is curious that when looking at old BEA timetables from the 1960s, there seems quite a random allocation of flights with first class offered, which required the small 951 subfleet. There are flights to Glasgow etc where it is apparent what the turnround was (there being rarely more than one Vanguard on the ground at a time at the outstations), with first offered one way but not the other. Not even any pattern to it - there are economy flights at business times and ones with first class at off peak hours. Possibly it was something to do with crewing.

For detailed descriptions of what it was like to actually fly the Vanguard (and the Merchantman freighter conversion) try the novel 'The Damocles Plot' by Julien Evans.

Getting back to Vanguard seating British Airways Museum has some fine pictures of them ,hope it helps

Lots of thinly-disguised anecdotes about flying the Mudguard in Canada here, too:

http://images.gr-assets.com/books/14...l/10156239.jpg

The 951 first class configuration did not last long if my fading memory recollects, once they were fitted with higher rated engines they were reconfigured to all tourist class probably in a matter of 3 or4 years Tristar 500 might remember better than I [he's younger than me].the Punker louve/ reading light assemblies were 3 in length each with their own nozzles and seat switches built in, even in the so called First class cabin the inner and outer reading lamp assemblies were adjusted to cover this

I think a bit longer than that; they came along in 1961, and in the 1968 BEA timetable there were still plenty of F-class Vanguard flights from Heathrow to Glasgow and Edinburgh, although the former route was increasingly changing to Tridents. Here's the page from the 1968 BEA timetable which, as they always uniquely did, lists their aircraft fleet and cabin configurations.

http://www.timetableimages.com/ttima...6/be686-29.jpg