Originally Posted by
gnarly
When I used to fly on RAF VC-10 air trooping flights to Germany (as an army brat), all of the passenger seats were rear facing. I believe that this was for marginal benefits in safety/survivability in the case of a crash. However, having taken that step, it always seemed like they were tempting fate!
My mother said that the rear facing seats helped with motion sickness, but others have said that it exacerbated it.
....as long as you don't get negative miles.
The RAF, USAF and the USN all converted a/c to rear facing pax seats.
The reason was pretty simple. It alleviated the long time problem of pairing heads (all relocated to the forward bulkhead) and torsos (still belted in) after very sudden stops.
Commercial carriers resisted the change (which does provide some modest safety benefit) on the grounds that paying pax don't like flying *ss-backwards...