December 14, 2019 | Kendall Creighton FlyersRights.org president Paul Hudson is visiting the FAA Civil Aeronautics Medical Institute in Oklahoma City. Initial impressions were that it has many advanced, under-utilized, and high tech facilities for air safety as part of a large campus for aviation training, testing and R&D. He noted there should be NO NEED to let Boeing and Airbus do their own evacuation tests. as they’ve been doing. The FAA should be able to do all testing here. (But then the airlines couldn’t run artificial tests and call them legitimate.) There also should be lots of willing test subjects and an able and available FAA staff that is totally devoted to air cabin safety testing and R&D. He noted some problems with the tests are that their plane aisle is 20” wide, whereas many are now 15” per FAA waivers. The seats are wider but they attach blocks to narrow them. The cushions are thicker and stiffer. The seat backs are wider and not tapered The seats backs do not recline and are rigidly upright. This may make it easier to stand climb or swim over the seats as some test subjects did to exit faster. Hudson was told they can increase the number of seats to 130, can attach slides and elevate the test plane to 12 feet above the ground. This facility is adjacent to an airport and Air Force base. They have a 747 and could easily bring in other airliners for evacuation tests.