Comment by yourapostasy | Hacker News Reader

Comment by yourapostasy | Hacker News Reader

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> The guy doesn't actually think that a fighter jet seat is better than a normal office chair in any practical sense.

Now that people are discussing it, I do want to find out if there are former air force pilots reading this who can corroborate or refute my hypothesis: I suspect long-duration mission bombers like the US B-52 and B-2 have pilot seats especially tuned for extended operational comfort, even more so than commercial airliners (passenger or cargo), and it would be interesting to test my hypothesis that those would make excellent office chairs for coders. Someone makes these from old pilot seats [1], but I'm specifically interested in pilot seats from airframes that routinely perform round-trip trans-Pacific routes.

I personally wouldn't routinely use such a seat for more than say 10-12 hours at a time, but if it is proven to still be comfortable after someone uses it for that long, naps for a couple hours in it, and uses it for another long session, then it is likely going to feel very comfortable to me. And maybe the safety harness will help me maintain my posture instead of having to remind myself every half hour to check it.

[1] https://www.skyart.com/en/captain-office-chair

I don't think you need to go to bombers to find good seats. Or even airplanes at all, though I've heard that airliners do tend to have pretty good seats for the pilots. Just start with buses and long haul trucks.

Though honestly, I think it's actually a solved problem. I just buy aftermarket Recaro seats. They know what they're doing.

I've often thought about how superior my car seat is to any office chair. Do you still sit with your legs out in front of you, and lower your desk?

Eh, most aftermarket seats are geared to keeping you in the seat during from lateral momentum. Less comfort than OEM.

OEM GT sedan seats are probably your best bet. Big Lexus, Mercedes, etc. sedans.

I've seen bus- and truck drivers sit down and watched their seat just sink down a few inches, thinking that those must be so comfortable and absorb so much of the stuff that the passengers who sit on a bit of cloth stretched over vandalism-proof plastic chairs have to endure.

Having worked at Martin-Baker for quite a few years, I can confirm that most ejection seats are pretty uncomfortable. The main issue is that adding too much cushioning means that during the ejection, the g forces compress the padding, moving your centre of gravity, and causing the rocket motor forces to rotate you more than it should do (as the thrust is now offset). So yeah, most office chairs are better!

I like this line of speculation, though what to make of the fact that the average military pilot and average coder probably differ...substantially...in physique? Not to mention ongoing training active pilots likely engage in that may help with posture.

My dad was in the Navy, and he said the F4 had the reputation for having a comfortable cockpit.

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