generalh0rse

Definitely safer, but it would require seat manufacturers and aircraft interiors to re-design all of their products. This is probably part of the "passengers won't like it" excuse (lobby?). An aft-facing seat back would be very different structurally from a forward-facing seat back, the former absorbing impact load from a face slamming into it (current seat backs are designed to crumple/absorb load in a crash). When it comes down to it, a three point seat belt is probably cheaper to integrate on all economy seats if the FAA starts requiring improved passenger safety, as opposed to throwing years of crash test research, engineering, and products out the window and starting from scratch. The industry is pretty entrenched in forward-facing seating.

What would you classify as "advanced manufacturing" today and localized to the area? I'm consistently impressed with the quality and cost of machined/prototype parts that come out of Shenzhen – even the "traditional" manufacturing can be mind-blowing.