Airbus Looks to IKEA For Inspiration, Imagines a Future With Flat-Packed Cockpits
Joe Cortez April 29, 2015
Flat-packed IKEA furniture became the inspiration for mocking up new Airbus cockpits, with applications to other industries as well.
In addition to being known for delicious Swedish Meatballs, IKEA is famous for furniture that is altogether difficult to construct. This complexity naturally draws a parallel with other projects that have a high degree of construction difficulty, such as aircraft cockpits. In a feature story on Airbus’ website, the European aircraft manufacturer revealed the secret to creating the aircraft cockpit of the future: flat-packed furniture.
According to Airbus lore, the inspiration began with a trip to IKEA one fateful day. Raphael Andre, a systems designer for Airbus, reportedly marveled at the idea that the “some assembly required” products could find a completely different application within the aerospace industry.
“After a trip to look at some furniture (at IKEA), it occurred to me that a simple-to-construct, wooden version of a cockpit would do the job very well,” said Andre.
Two years later, Andre’s idea found life after a visit to the prototype lab at Airbus’ Toulouse facility. Because building full-scale prototypes of cockpits is a costly and difficult proposition, Andre revisited the idea of building a fit-together cockpit design. Working with a computer-based deign tool, Andre created a cardboard mock-up of an aircraft cockpit, which was soon turned into a wooden prototype. The wooden cockpit was an immediate success and quickly picked up for a joint project with automotive manufacturer Continental.
“[Continental has] been doing research into safety systems that monitor drivers and we’ve been working with them to explore possible applications in aviation,” said Werner De Rammelaere, an Airbus innovation engineer. “Continental wanted to use mock-ups and simulators, but there is huge demand on these, so I suggested that they drive over and pick up a cockpit kit instead.”
The flat-packed cockpits may also be used in additional aviation projects, including the development of the new A320 cockpit. Unfortunately for aviation enthusiasts, the aircraft manufacturer has not yet announced a home version of the flat-packed cockpit.
[Photo: Airbus]
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Wow, where has this Airbus guy been. We have had them for years and called them paper tigers. Over the years they have advance with movable switches and now mostly electronic, called CPTs. If you have ever used an Airbus MCDU/FMS, you would know a Human Factors Engineer/Ergonomics or the pilots were never consulted in the process of usability.
I thought the curved instrument panel was so either pilot could see all the indicators (most are duplicated for each one) by simply moving their head and not having to do a lot of vision focusing. Wouldn't a flat display cause some problems in those areas?