The present invention relates to stowable tables of the type commonly employed in vehicles, such as aircraft. More particularly, the invention involves an improved, simplified support system utilizing a single hinge mechanism for accommodating plural pivotal movements of the table in various planes of operation from its stowed position in the armrest of the vehicle seat to its position of use externally of the armrest.
A table that is stowed in a compartment contained in the armrest of an aircraft seat, or the like, must be moved, first, in a vertical plane from its stowed position in the compartment to a fully exposed position externally of the compartment and thereafter, in a lateral plane at right angles to the first plane in order to cause the table to assume a horizontal disposition with respect to the seated passenger. In stowable tables of the prior art, such compound movement of the tables requires the use of individual, separately mounted pivot hinges accommodating movement of the table in the respective planes. Where such tables have the further capability of being pivoted in the horizontal plane, as for example, to permit the passenger to exit the seat while the tray is in its horizontal disposition a still further hinge mechanism is required.
Such prior art tables, due to the need for individual hinge mechanisms for effecting pivotal movement into each position between their stowed position in the compartment and their position of use, are costly to fabricate and install and possess a greater propensity to malfunction. It is, accordingly, to the alleviation of such problem that the present invention is directed.