Commercial airliners were full of danger for passengers in the 1970s. And not just because of the thick clouds of cigarette smoke emitted from the smoking sections of airliner cabins. Hijacking aircraft became a frequent occurrence as well.
So frequent, in fact, the portmanteau "skyjacking" came into common usage and passengers could buy special insurance in the event their flight was unlawfully commandeered.
Necessity is, as they say, the mother of invention, and the serious necessity of dealing with skyjackers inspired inventor Jack Jensen to invent a solution to the problem. That invention, the Airplane Hijacking Injector, was awarded U.S. Patent 3,841,328 on 15 October 1974.
As you'll see from the patent's abstract describing the invention's purpose and novel application of technology, inventor Jack Jensen wasn't one to mess around:
Passenger disabling apparatus mounted in and under an airplane seat and remotely actuated by a pilot or a crew member for disabling an airplane hijacker. The disabling apparatus comprises a solenoid actuated seat belt buckle lock in combination with an infalable seat back and hypodermic injection apparatus arranged for driving the needle of a hypodermic syringe through the seat cushion into the passenger to instantly sedate or kill the passenger.
Jensen's patent features a sequence of figures that visually tells the story of how the invention works to incapacitate the ultimate unruly airline passenger, which we've animated.
We can only imagine what the well-dressed prospective skyjacker's last thoughts might have been as they suddenly discovered they were locked into their seat while being jabbed in their rear-ends by a sharp, sturdy needle and knocked out before having their upper bodies pushed about like a rag doll as they were either sedated or killed.
Since Jenson's invention was patented, skyjacking has become much less common, but the need for airline crew members to address unruly passengers remains. How long might it be before the airplane hijacking injector is repurposed to solve today's growing problem with unruly passengers?
From the Inventions in Everything Archives
This is the second patent whose illustrations the IIE team has animated because of the visual story they tell. Oddly enough, like this patent, it also deals with arresting nefarious people engaged in a specific mode of transport:
Labels: technology
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