United to Add Lie-Flat Pods Without Sacrificing Seating Capacity

Acumen, the designer firm behind United Airlines’ exclusive new “Polaris” business class seats managed to do what was previously thought impossible.

Past attempts to design aircraft cabins that give passengers more personal space without reducing the overall seating capacity on a commercial flight have led to some out-of-the-box thinking. Concepts including the “sleeping box”, the “trapeze” and the “honeycomb” have largely been dismissed as either way ahead of their time or wildly impractical.

At least one bold idea, however, has managed to make it from the drawing board to the runway. Polaris, the latest in innovative business cabin concepts from the U.K. design firm Acumen will soon become a reality for United Airlines premium class passengers. The engineers behind the new lie-flat business cabin seats say that they have accomplished what was previously thought impossible — creating more space and privacy for passengers without stealing that space from other seats on the aircraft.

When United Airlines officials went shopping for new premium cabins for the carrier’s Airbus A350, Boeing 777 and Boeing 787 fleet, they were reportedly told over and over again that their wish list for a new business class seat was unrealistic and likely impossible. “They had been told by other manufacturers that this wasn’t doable,” Ali Ersan, a member of the Polaris design team confided to Skift.

It turns out a gin and tonic and brainstorming session on a commuter train from London helped provide the inspiration for Acumen founder Ian Dryburgh to accomplish the “impossible.” Dryburgh says that the unique “herringbone” design his firm created allowed engineers to find that elusive extra space in the finite dimensions of an aircraft cabin.

“Mixing in-line seats with angled seats had never been tried in an aircraft interior before, and I couldn’t think why,” Dryburgh explained. “My first sketch of the layout captured this key principle to minimizing redundant space. Many of the market leading features are as a consequence of this one big idea.”

For the near future, Polaris business class cabins will be exclusive to United Airlines aircraft. The airline will roll out the new cabins on its Boeing 777 planes early next year and will retrofit much of the remaining fleet over the following two-year period.

[Photos: Polaris]