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 aircraft.
Larger wide-body airplanes are increasingly containerized - the luggage is loaded into standardized containers called ULDs (Unit Load Devices), and then the ULDs are loaded into the plane. Here's a cross-section of an Airbus A300 with three aisles of seating, and ULDs loaded into the cargo area. "Pin It")
This is the Power Stow, an extendable belt loading system for loading and unloading luggage into (mostly smaller) aircraft.
Larger wide-body airplanes are increasingly containerized - the luggage is loaded into standardized containers called ULDs (Unit Load Devices), and then the ULDs are loaded into the plane. Here's a cross-section of an Airbus A300 with three aisles of seating, and ULDs loaded into the cargo area.
There's also the unusual Magic Carpet moving plane floor system, demonstrated in this 76-second video:
Anyway, seeing the Power Stow reminds me of the dreaded task of loading firewood into a house. When I think of this problem, I envision solving it with some sort of portable, powered, bendable version of a commercial firewood conveyor. Otherwise, it's a messy, back-breaking, inefficient task whose methods have largely remained unchanged in the past 10,000 years or so.
Maybe I just need a better method of carrying firewood? The guy in this 43-second video seems to know what he's doing:
Or perhaps I'm just a spoiled American? In this 64-second video, these two women have no problem carrying a big load of firewood on their heads. One of them even has a baby on her back at the same time:
Interestingly, habitually carrying objects on your head may result in skull flattening, which makes the task even easier. Unfortunately I have a normal-shaped skull, whose contents tell me that carrying firewood on my head is a bad idea.
Here's a GIF of another solution. This is a non-absurd strategy for moving firewood into a house, especially if you have ten or twelve children.
Here's an interesting 98-second video of a homemade firewood conveyor, where the firewood loading is a straight shot, no curves. This one is from a first world country this time, but it still makes generous use of child labor and perilous proximity to machinery:
A neighbor of mine said that I should install an exterior door in the wall next to the hearth, and stack the wood outside, against the house exterior wall, on both sides of the new door. By using double-acting spring hinges ("saloon style" hinges), I would just bump open the door, grab an armload of firewood, walk back in, and dump it on the hearth, all the while proclaiming my brilliance to anyone within earshot.
I like this concept because it addresses the fact that loading firewood into a house is often two jobs - first loading it from outside into a wood room or a large stack near the hearth, and then periodically loading a small stack of it onto the hearth itself.
A little Googling reveals that a similarly-placed airlock-style opening (sometimes called a "pass-through"), accomplishes the same goal, while also preventing a mess caused by transporting firewood through the house. Here's an example image I found of a firewood pass-through:
As a bonus, relying on an overhead access hatch, like carrying firewood on my head, could help me flatten my skull.
Obviously, this project screams for a treadmill. There are plenty of videos of unmodified treadmills being used as firewood conveyors, but most of them just shoot the firewood down through a basement window from someone's yard, like in this 48-second video:
That's interesting, but it's not saving them that much work as opposed to just kicking the firewood down into the open window.
Here's a good find: in this 67-second video, a clever guy uses a modified treadmill to convey firewood upwards into the back of his pickup truck after splitting it.
Of course, if you are loading firewood into a room below ground level, there are plenty of options, but the technique in this 77-second video is my favorite of the batch:
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