History of In-Flight Lavatory

By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter

A long time ago, passengers on a train did not answer the call of nature when the train stopped at stations but did so when the train was running. And the running train threw out the excrement alongside the railway tracks.

Then, what was it like for the airplane?

At the beginning of the aviation era, there were no lavatories on planes.

Aircrafts in those times did not fly at the high altitudes of these days _ pilots had to fly low and watch the conditions without the help of radar or other facilities.

Although it is hard to believe these days, it is said that pilots discharged their urine in their shoes and threw the water away in the air, or they peed after making a hole in the cockpit floor.

At the beginning of ``passenger'' plane era, they put an empty bucket at the back of the plane to be used as a toilet bowl.

The first separate lavatory debuted at the end of the 1930s along with the operation of the DC-4 passenger plane. The toilet bowls were removable, and when the plane arrived at the airport, the crew had to dump the excrement and clean them out after removing them from the plane.

In 1945, a long-haul passenger plane DC-6B had a fixed toilet bowl for the first time, with excrement collected in a tank during flight. When the plane arrived at the airport, a garbage wagon came to the aircraft, removed the tank and cleaned it.

Afterward, the tank became fixed, and garbage wagons came and sucked out the contents. The method also removed bad smells.

When jetliners made their debut around 1958, in-flight lavatories evolved a lot, having a modern look. Lavatories became to have flush toilets, equipped with washbowl, power sockets and basic dresser sets.

A B747 jumbo jet carries 10 liters of water per lavatory, calculating that 0.13 liter is used per person onboard including passengers and crew members.

Planes for short-haul routes usually have one lavatory per 70 seats, while those for mid-range routes have one per 45 seats, and those for long-haul, one per 30 seats. Usually an aircraft has a lavatory per 35 passengers in economy class and one per 10 passengers in first class, although the number can differ from airline to airline.

rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr

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