back to article A380 passengers to enjoy 'military-style' urinals

Airbus A380 cabin component manufacturer Dasell Cabin Interiors has announced it will supply "space-saving military-style" urinals to an unnamed A380 customer, as it unveiled its "concept urinal" (pictured) at the Aircraft Interiors Expo 2008 in Hamburg. Dasell's concept urinal According to Flight International, Dasell is …

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  1. Mark Broadhurst
    Thumb Down

    And if you need to number 2?

    just wait ?

  2. Waggers
    Coat

    poster

    Note the poster in the picture above the urinal, complete with detailed instructions and diagrams. Knowing what the queues are like sometimes on long haul flights, I don't think many passengers are going to have time to read that lot.

    As for the design itself - what's the idea, grip with your knees and pee through the whole? A little bit of turbulence and it's wet trousers time.

    I'll get my coat... to cover the embarrassing stain

  3. herman
    Dead Vulture

    French style?

    I guess the next version will be Paris style urinals open at the top and bottom, so you can carry on chatting up the women in the loo line-up while taking a leak.

  4. Sam

    Just..

    Don't push the red button.

  5. Ian Ferguson
    Unhappy

    Re: And if you need to number 2?

    That's what the sink's for.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Yay!

    More room for the gyms, bars, massage parlours and swimming pools then!

  7. Rusty Warrior
    Coat

    That's just...

    taking the piss!

  8. Geoff Webber
    Pirate

    @ Mark B

    No ............ silly

    You just face the other way.

    Surely you cant expect squaddies to have to think too hard !!

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Re: And if you need to number 2?

    Um, just use one of the sit-down cubicles.

    The urinals are just for men needing a pee and will not replace all the regular facilities available - anyone needing to sit down to do their business will be catered for by the standard wipe-the-seat-and-sit-on-it units.

  10. Test Man
    Alert

    Sit-down units? Number 2?

    Aren't you not supposed to do a number 2 on ANY aircraft toilet?

  11. Wonderkid
    Boffin

    Constipated? Dear Patent Office...

    DESCRIPTION

    Pressure extraction method for No.2

    Requires aircraft or pump if ground based.

    CLAIMS

    1. A system whereby a tight seal is formed around bum and seat

    2. As per claim 1, whereby patient sits on invention

    3. As per claim 2, whereby a flush is performed while patient remains seated

    4. As per claim 3, relief will be instant

    WARNING: Avoid useage over populated areas, in particular outdoor Tapas bars where unsuspecting diners may not spot anything undesirable landing on the sharing platter. Bon appetite.

  12. Darren B

    Mile High

    If there are 4 punters per cubicle it would be more of a mile high orgy.

  13. Christoph

    Average figure

    "70 per cent of economy class passengers are male"

    What happens on flights where they do not have an average distribution of passengers?

    Oh, and where are you suposed to go now to join the mile high club?

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Next phase

    The A380 announcement only reveals part I of the III-part plan.

    Interim step II will be to put a seatback and floating cushion seat on those new urinals, thereby gaining an additional four passenger seats inside the toilets.

    Last phase III is to install urinals at each passenger seat in the cabin for greater density since aisles, now used less, can be downsized. Segregate the 70% men/30% women together and no cause to complain.

  15. Anonymous John
    Coat

    It would save even more space,

    if they fitted outdoor toilets.

    Coat please. It looks windy out there.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    70% are male

    And 75% of them don't wash their hands after using the bathroom, so why not just get rid of the sink as well?

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Excess baggage

    Any poo you take on the flight with you will now count towards your luggage allowance - Probably the only luggage you'll get back through Heathrow Terminal 5

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    There are always...

    a number of passengers who contrive to spend hours (or it seems like it to the rest of us queueing outside) in the toilet. What they do in there is a mystery, but it sure takes a long time, and they seem to do it in groups, ensuring that all cubicles remain engaged.

    This is a great idea.

    I hope it is unlikely that four guys, all at the same time, can find some reason to spend 45 minutes standing at a urinal.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    @ Test Man

    Correct: you're supposed to do it IN the toilet. I commiserate with your fellow passengers if you've managed to get this far in life without joining the Mile High Dump Club

  20. Seán

    @Test man

    Shit away

  21. Brian
    Alert

    Which is which?

    In the picture, the sink and pisser look the same. How many will piss in the sink?

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Need Stirrups

    I'm sorry but this just would not do, I need some stirrups for my feet. On bumpy rides I need both hands....

    KC

  23. Neil Cooper
    Paris Hilton

    Good idea

    Now there will be a faster male-only track so we can avoid the long delays when women cause long bathroom queues while they redo their makeup or whatever the hell they do in there that takes forever.

    Paris because she would be in there the whole flight.

  24. Mike Powers

    It's like a Cylon vulva

    This is like some sort of bizarre Cyberman porno...

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    70% are male??

    I know some of my fellow cattl^H^H^H passengers look a little rough, but the high-pitched voices and demands for wine rather than beer suggest a little more than 30% are female... but then it can be hard to tell under the baggy football shirts and tons of carry-on baggage... and the kids.

    If this is instead of the normal cubicles, someone needs a serious kicking before they get to implement it. There's never enough toilets anyway!

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    Herc

    Reminds me of an old story I heard about someone on a research/military hercules. It has a toilet on a slider up the wall, slide it down, pull the curtain around you, use it, slide it back up out the way again.

    Oh, you've already guessed, someone didn't know about the slide it down bit, or the curtain bit....

    Go, because they did

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What the...

    It looks like a garbage can. I'd be looking around forever to find the urinal.

    It also seems like it might provide a wanker with something to mount...

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    @harmen

    "Paris style urinals open at the top and bottom" ?!?

    Stop writing such things man, I caught a really bad parsing problem for a few seconds.

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    Crowded toilets

    The trick to avoiding the crowds at the toilets is to not go after a meal or after a movie ends.

  30. S Taylor
    Paris Hilton

    It does the Job(bies)

    As a VC10 person, I can confirm that the 'back aft' 2 man urinal is, indeed, a fine work of art. Bounded by 2 separate sit down jobs for the females, women are spared the trauma of a lid up, splashy everywhere, type scenario when powdering their nose.

    Paris, 'cos she knows how to empty your bag:-)

    Mine's the one with the bog brush in the pocket.

  31. Scott Silver badge
    Pirate

    C130

    Long ago, I flew the atlantic in a USAF Hercules. The toilet facilities were some sort of hole behind a partition. Needless to say, few of our (mixed) unit used it. We all did have a good dump in Goose Bay before the long part of the flight though!

  32. skeptical i
    Coat

    use the sink?

    Doesn't the penis- enabled part of the population just wee into the sink and then run some water down the drain anyway? Just make the sink a bit larger, eliminate the urinal (or install a faucet atop the urinal and dual- purpose it as a hand- wash station and eliminate the sink) and they could pro'ly install even more of 'em.

    Mine's got the bog paper stuck to the hem ....

  33. Nigee

    Looks

    a bit flash to me for 'military style', there I was thinking the technical marvel of fitting a deep trench latrine to an aircraft, or even the humbler desert rose.

  34. Anthony Green
    IT Angle

    Number 2's banned

    I recall that having ascended the Commie Chinese "Great Wall" at Badaling in 2001, I decided to take a paid "comfort stop" at a Chinese equivalent of a "Portaloo" complex.

    Inside, about the urinals, was the blatant sign "NO SHITTING" - Me? - I nearly wet myself laughing so much.

    Women, who wanted to relieve themselves of anything were totally out of luck - there were no facilities for them!

    The "IT" icon ? Well perhaps the suffix "SH" would be most appropriate in the circumstances !

  35. B Johnson
    Coat

    bad subbing

    surely the headline should have been "A380 passengers to 'enjoy' military-style urinals" rather than "A380 passengers to enjoy 'military-style' urinals'.

    My portmanteau. How kind.

  36. Stephen Mullan
    Thumb Down

    @Richard Drysdall

    Dont know if i the movie comment, on 99 percent of long haul flights you choose your movie, when you want it to start and can even pause it, meaning that not everybody's movie ends at the same time.

  37. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Crowded toilets

    The problem with the toilets is due to the simple truth that if you get in early enough you can stay for the entire flight in relative luxury.

    Everyone should travel in their own toilet cubicle, it's the way forward.

  38. steogede
    Boffin

    The maths doesn't add up

    If males make up 70% of economy passengers, then it is fairly easy to extrapolate that they only account for 7% toilet usage (based on time).

    What they need to do is have 30% of the seats fitted with dressing tables and then never clean the toilets so that no-one stays there longer than necessary - kind of like how Pret-a-Manger have uncomfortable seats and irritating music.

  39. Mister_C
    Coat

    @ Herman

    And there was me thinking of the French "two footpads and a hole in the floor" style porcelain.

    Could be a bit draughty, but what a great view while you pee.

    Might be a bit tricky to keep the cabin pressure too.

    If you need me, I'll be next to the drawing board...

  40. Fluffykins Silver badge

    Military style....Does it have

    A stiff upper lip?

  41. Nameless Faceless Computer User
    Thumb Up

    Love it

    Looks like it's easier to aim.

  42. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    enjoy?

    So you're standing there, elbows at your sides, returning some rented vin de pays d'oc, and a 6foot-wide 28stone amer^H^H^H^Hpassenger arrives at the pissoir beside you. He squashes you into the space so tightly that you can't safely zip up, and starts to engage you in conversation about his holiday, occasionally apologising about how flying after spending a weekend drinking German beer always gives him gas...

    Yeah. Enjoy.

  43. Adam

    Weeing on a Herc

    The C-130J's I've been on have the toilet positioned alongside the top of the cargo ramp.

    And yes, you can open the cargo ramp whilst in the air ;-)

  44. Matthew
    Jobs Horns

    The solution

    Fly Business Class or above. Shit all you like, no queue.

    Get your company to pay.

  45. Murray Pearson
    Coat

    I can't believe nobody's said this yet...

    ...but this really adds a dimension to "whizzing off on an adventure."

  46. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    @ 70% are male

    "And 75% of them don't wash their hands after using the bathroom, so why not just get rid of the sink as well?"

    75% of em dont piss on their hands ;)

  47. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Pee Funnel

    My missus uses a plastic funnel thingy so she can use urinals. You see some startled men's faces in group urinals; some of them take a while to realise and then you really see their jaws dropping. She hates loo queues.

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