Airline Seat Research

[1ofeverything]

Hi all. I'm doing some research for a story about the history of commercial airline seats, specifically the design changes over the decades and the ways in which this evolution reflects the changing economics of air travel over time. I made an account here to see if you kind folks might have any knowledge or suggestions for me. What I'm looking for now are a couple things:

• 1) A method of compartmentalizing and categorizing the evolution of the commercial airline seat
  • There are so many small changes in the standard coach seat over the years, but I'd like to find a way to organize those changes into distinct sections that are easy to digest (by the decade? by some financial measurement? by specific breakthroughs in design?) What are the distinct 'chapters' of airline seat history?
• 2) Access to old blueprints, patents or visuals that can be paired with this information to give readers a very clear representation of this evolution. Is there a public database where I can easily find these types of images? Or perhaps someone specific who I can reach out to?

Thanks very much for any comments. I appreciate it!