Caravelle's cabin got the first refurbished seat and curtains

Suomeksi

The interior work in the Caravelle’s cabin has been going on almost since the aircraft left Arlanda, nearly three years ago. The surfaces in the cabin have been cleaned, insulated, refurbished, upholstered and painted. Now we have reached a point where some surfaces are ready, and the hard work is paying off. I am sure this summer the visitors will appreciate the outcome too.

A passenger cabin section has been built in the front part of the cabin, separated from the open rear section with new bulkheads. Four rows of passenger seats will be assembled in the front part, to illustrate what the cabin looked like in the 1960s. The seat frames, brought from Arlanda, were restored and painted last autumn, and the seat covers were washed and repaired. Now it was time to assemble a demo-seat where all restored parts are included.

Each seat has two pieces of padding made of foamed plastic: a section for the seat back, shaped according to an original model, and the thick seat cushion, cut to form. All padding parts had to be made from new material. The original set of seat textiles consists of three parts: the seat back hood, the cover for the backside of the seat back (including the seat pocket), and the seat cushion cover.  The seat back hood is fastened on the seat frame with Velcro tape, the seat pocket part with two screws and Velcro tape. The seat cushion and its cover are fastened on the seat with four snap fasteners, located under the seat. The seat belt halves are fastened on the seat frame with lock hooks.

Photo: Erja Reinikainen

The seats are assembled outside the aircraft, using a jig built on cargo pallets. The seat frames are fastened on aircraft seat tracks on the pallet, and there is more working space around the seat than in the cabin. This proved to be a good arrangement, the working height was good and even the weather was favourable when the first seat was assembled. Developing the working methods and the correct assembly order required some discussing and testing, so assembling the demo seat took almost the whole day.

Photo: Erja Reinikainen

The original cabin curtains were removed to be washed and repaired about a year ago. The curtains were mainly in good condition and no major repair was needed. At this point we installed back ten curtains in the front section of the cabin. The curtains are fastened at the top and at the bottom on the roller slides on the curtain track with snap fasteners. There are 28 snap fasteners per curtain and fastening them required some dexterity and patience.

Photos: Erja Reinikainen

When the 3-passenger seat had been brought into the cabin and the curtains were in place, it was time to sit down and relax. A new milestone had been reached in the Caravelle restoration project: the cabin is beginning to look like the interior of an aircraft again. It has taken a while – and it looks good.

Photo: Erja Reinikainen

Photo: Jouko Tarponen