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A look at the new Recaro Aircraft Seating Crash-test facility – Economy Class and Beyond at Recaro Aircraft Seating

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A look at the new Recaro Aircraft Seating Crash-test facility – Economy Class and Beyond at Recaro Aircraft Seating
To Stuttgart and Schwabisch Hall

Stuttgart -Recaro trip report header

In this trip report:

a white object in front of a building
The Recaro 707 tail (ex Hamburg Airport). 

One of the newest features of Recaro’s new facility at Schwabisch Hall is their new seat crash and testing facility. This is in addition to a flame lab that has been opened.

a car in a room with a large sign on the wall
Mr Porche. With Recaro seating inside. 

Whilst computer modelling crashes is helpful, nothing helps like a real-world test to gather data and analyse how a seat will behave in the real world, as well as those seats gaining certification 

Enter the crash facility.

a man in a suit walking in a factory

a machine with several chairs
The crash test facility. If you want to see a picture of The Wandering Aramean on the rig… head here. 

Like a lot of vendors, Recaro used to use a 3rd party to validate their test requirements. By bringing it in house, Recaro can reduce the costs of using an external party, as well as to conduct the number of tests they require – both for education and for regulatory reasons, 

The company expects to operate 200 tests a year at the facility. 

With the rig capable of testing 16G crashes, there are a lot of sensors to set up, as we can see from the crash-test dummy. 

a person holding a green cable a mannequin with wires on his legs

As well as rigging the sensors of the dummy, there is lighting and a camera to capture the information – generating gigabytes of information at a time, with 1000 frames per second to allow for post-test analysis.

a man in a suit walking in a factorya group of lights from a ceiling
And a lot of light to capture the images. 

The system is powered by a nitrogen ram (this being a lot more stable than oxygen or other gas, with the majority of nitrogen recovered and reused post-test. 

a man standing next to a large black pipe

A test lasts three seconds and is very controlled so there are no loose items or bodies around – as this data can be used to qualify or develop a seat that will go to market.

Facilities like this cost a lot of money – and for Recaro – it’s a major investment. By taking the testing in house, they will recover the cost of developing the seat – and in turn that could come at a reduced cost to the customer or OEM who wants a Recro seat installed in their aircraft.

a man standing in a factory

FULL DISCLOSURE: Recaro Aircraft Seating kindly invited Economy Class and Beyond, as a guest to their facilities, offering a stipend to assist with expenses. 

All opinions and thoughts are the author’s own and are not directed by Recaro Aircraft Systems.

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