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Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

That doesn't give you access to move containers in and out, the doors are very small. Cargo conversion can be done but it is neither cheap, quick or easily reversible.

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In times like these temporarily removing seats to allow them to be converted back to passenger planes makes more sense. Even if egress isn't as optimized as a true cargo plane.

Optimized is too small a term. It's neigh on impossible to responsibly load a plane without the required infrastructure in place, weight, balance, shifting loads and so on are all reasons why standardized cargo containers are used. Loose loads in aircraft can have this kind of effect:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_eP0zdfZFk

So, assuming you can get the load safely in to the plane, without some kind of containerization inside it you are running a significant risk. Note that the video shows a crash due to one or more Humvees not being properly secured and I'd expect shifting loads to be a bit nicer than that on average but still, that's a risk that need not be taken.

Cargo planes are cargo planes for a reason.

Presumably something could be devised that bolts to the now-empty seat rails and provides a way to secure small cargo. It's entirely possible such a solution wouldn't be cost-effective, though.

Nets.

Not for most commercial planes, no. Slightly off topic, as the number of planes is very small, but I have seen Russian load masters of old Russian military cargo planes applying some, let's say creative, ways of loose loading them.

I still prefer the properly controlled and planned way, so.

> That doesn't give you access to move containers in and out, the doors are very small. Cargo conversion can be done but it is neither cheap, quick or easily reversible.

True, but it would allow workers to use a dolly to easily and more efficiently load small pallets of larger items (compared to carrying them in by hand and trying to buckle them into a seat or something).

Maybe they could use also use the seat attachment points to somehow secure the cargo.

Yes, that is how it is typically done, they throw nets over segments of boxes on the floors and secure them to the seat rails.

The German postal service is still paying for a couple of flights during the night to make sure it can guarantee E+1 delivery. They use regular passenger planes with a special set of seat covers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKORFvrttPo

That's a super neat solution and still uses quite a bit of the capacity of the plane. Looks very stable too.

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