Cabin Innovations!
 

Over the last 50 years, the whole concept of flying has barely changed. In an aluminum cigar you are taken from A to B, on seats that are aligned in rows. But without changing the airframe, isn't there anything that can be improved?

So what do you like to see inside the cabin, especially on long haul flights? - Taking into account the limited amount of space that is available.

This is the main question of my graduation project at Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. On which I hope you can share some insights with me. - It would help me out a lot!

To give some direction, I have identified four main themes:
1. Physical comfort - Emerge from the plane as newborn
2. Business - Being able to work more efficiently on board
3. Entertainment - Time flies when you are having fun
4. Customization - Personalize your flying experience

I am focusing on Business Class long haul, because this provides more opportunities, namely space and investment per seat, but I am also interested in innovations that suit any other cabin.

Thanks for your cooperation!

1. Physical comfort - More padding on the seat.
2. Business - Internet access, ac power.
3. Entertainment - Bigger t.v screen, more choices of what to watch.
4. Customization - More food, drink, desert choice, etc. Interior colors
that look less like a prison.

I think that longhaul business class has received tons of attention throughout the years and IMO has developed tremedously.

1. Physical comfort: the biz seats have been continuously improved and some are very good. You can't have a giant recliner for practical reasons and some of the lie-flat (or close to it) seats and actually nice. NOTHING compared to economy! (Bear in mind that space and weight are limiting factors.) IMO one of the main reasons for discomfort is the very dry pressurized air, something that is not exactly flexible due to materials used (although the dreamliner is supposed to be better). We'd all like our own giant private compartments that have a desk, giant TV and a bed, but let's face it - not gonna happen!

2. Most longhaul biz seats do have power. Regular plugs are great, anything that requires an adaptor (EmPower) sucks.

3. I do have one suggestion here: a better positioned screen. You know those magnifying mirrors that you can pull out and flip as you please? I'm thinking something like that. One issue is the fact that flat screens are sensible to light and when the sun shines right on your screen it's almost impossible to see. I don't know how this could be addressed... maybe some screen like those thin dark plastic screens you can use for laptops? Otherwise, IFE systems have come a long way. The main issue is reliability. IFE systems don't get enough attention (and are apparently poorly tested). They break way too often and it's never on the airline's priority list. They rush to turn the plane around and don't care all that much about IFE working. I think it's part of the product they sell and the lack of IFE should ALWAYS be compensated. Airlines underestimate their importance.

4. Customization: it's impractical to have too many meals types on board. The plane has limited space and food-related facilities. It's not like they're going to add a kitchen. :) Plane food is... well, plane food. It's prepackaged (often frozen) and reheated. It has to be practical for the catering company, fairly small and CHEAP. No major airline is going to pay $50/meal, not even in their most royal class.

My personal opinion is that economy is the way to go. The "steerage" has been neglected for decades. Yes, airline make a lot of money off premium seats, but MOST of their customers fly in Y. Those new slanted seats that DL is allegedly going to install look VERY promising (I don't have the link but a search on FT should do it). There has to be a better way to take advantage of that [limited] space! More friendly colors probably help. (I for one like NW's A330 fleet - has a nice *new* and pleasant atmosphere.) No crappy grays and light brown, no BRIGHT red either. Airlines just have to care enough to find a solution.

In this day and age, IFE, even in Y, is the way to go. Any flight over 2 hours should have some sort of entertainment, even if it's not free. Give people some choices and make their flight seem shorter. ^

I think many people would like to join the mile high club. How about having a dedicated area that J pax could use - perhaps booked in 20 minute intervals?

What about more space in the toilet? In many toilets I simply cannot imagine starting acrobatics in such small spaces where I alone hardly fit in.
W

Well, in a 747 (and probably other widebodies as well) there is an unused space above the overhead bins of around 1 to 1,5 meters. This is where some airlines have their (8 person) crew rests. Besides this, the space from where the upper deck ends, till the tail is unused and you could fit at least 24 beds in there.

Only problem is that you are not allowed there. Airlines have not been able to certify the space for passengers, because evacuation of these spaces would take too long. Flight crew has had special training and is allowed. But I was quite surprised that these airplanes have so much unused space.

Welcome to Flyer Talk rjtat5 :)

I disagree with your premise. In my opinion, business class long haul has changed markedly in the past 10 or so years.

I too think the focus of any interesting future innovation needs to be in the genpop class. For business class its easy - wider beds more space etc.
Its in genpop that new and bold design might be able to increase comfort while not hurting the bottom line.
e.g. delta's effort:
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/0...-airlines.html

I myself have thought a lot about this too. I think business and first class by and large have seen developments, and are not really "problem" areas. The place where there is need for improvement is the coach class.

Unfortunately, things in this area are pretty much pared down to nothing as is. every inch has been utilized, and in many cases over utilized I don't think there is much that you can do right now to improve comfort, convenience, and safety without having to give up on a few areas. But with that in mind, I think that there is huge room for those airlines who would be willing to risk giving a little for reap rewards in the future. LED lighting is a good start - I think lighting can really enhance the cabin atmosphere. I think we have pared seats down a little too far - cuts now directly impact comfort and safety (we will not even get into those new offset seats!). In fact that might be one area of key improvement, Look at the design of high-end office chairs, and I think you might find some very efficient designs with high comfort there. I think that in the MP3 era the time has come to revamp in flight entertainment - why does my IFE for the seatback need this huge box under the seat, when I can store more programs, music, and video on my MP3 player that I can hold in the palm of my hand?

In economy class, have seats designed so that reclining slides the seat bottom forward simultaneously. This might alleviate some of the recline wars, since it adds a cost to the passenger reclining and reduces the cost of the reclining on the passenger behind, rather than having all of the costs of reclining being forced onto the passenger behind.

Other than installing (paid) IFE, at least for US Carriers, I would doubt there will be much improvement to the Y cabin. However, the new 787s are suppose to have higher ceilings and lighting but US carriers decided to jam in one additional seat across than originally planned by Boeing.

In fact, I think that we can look forward to more things like broken armrests and dirty seats going forward.

I didn't have to read all of the other comments to also come to the conclusion that economy class is the one that needs the big idea for improvement. New business and first class cabins are doing quite well.

Having recently traveled transcon in economy on Air Canada, I will say that a good on-demand in-flight entertainment system with many choices is a huge deal. This really makes for a much better experience.

Beyond that, I have no confidence that things will improve. For very long flights, I've often thought about getting rid of the seats entirely and stringing up hammocks 3 or 4 high, like in an old movie showing the crew on a pirate ship.:D@:-)

But as the world gets richer, the airlines will want to tempt more people to part with money to travel in Business. Therefore, it could make sense to keep business as a product that considers comfort whilst trying to make economy as cheap as possible for people who buy according to price alone - but make it pretty uncomfortable, thereby encouraging upgrades.

You could make Y more comfortable by installing couchette type accommodation for long flights like the crew rest areas. Lie flat all the way. I saw a website that showed it to be possible, but it surmised that it would torpedo the market for the J and F fares.

If it's possible, I'm not sure why a company like Virgin, that operates on the bottom line and is prepared to ditch premium classes on domestic routes in some countries (I don't know enough to make a more blanket statement than that!) wouldn't try it.

Come on Richard Branson, give it a go.

I've used seats like this in SQ economy. It has these benefits, as well as feeling as if (I didn't measure) it reclines more than the typical economy seat. Don't know why everyone doesn't use them - does it weigh more? cost more? or is it just inertia on the part of most other airlines? In any case, there's nothing to design here; these seats exist and are in use.

The problem with sliding seats is that it takes up leg room. The seats move forward, meaning even less room for people's legs. That would not be so bad a problme if the chair pivoted instead, like those zero G chairs.

In general "companies" parted with the money so their employees could travel in Business. Nowadays fewer and fewer do.

In general, "people" don't part with money to travel in Business and probably never will.
The choice still remains whether or not to do it; only this time the choice does not bother someone else.

Travel tips: http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/travel.htm

Agreed the J passenger is traditionally on a company paid ticket but aren't more people paying for their own J tickets on leisure now?

You beat me to it - this is exactly what I was thinking. This scenario SHOULD make leg room smaller as it makes the upper area larger. That way you are just reallocating the space you've been given, rather than keeping all your space, and some of the space behind you.

I think your focus is misplaced. Business class seats and amenities have made enormous strides in the past 25 years, but they still serve a tiny minority of the traveling public. Most economy class cabins, on the other hand, are still very much as they were in 1965 -- the only major enhancement being personal TV, and only on some airlines.

Rather than trying to figure out how to further pamper business class customers, who are in most cases extremely comfortable already, I think it would be more interesting and useful to figure out how to make economy-class travel less appalling. When you look at industry growth forecasts, particularly in Asia, most of those additional passengers are going to be flying coach, not business.

You might look at health-related issues in particular. With flight duration rising and economy seat pitch shrinking, airlines need a strategy to reduce DVT fatalities and associated liability / lawsuits / bad press.

My focus on business class is because previous research has shown that although passengers obviously value extra services in economy class, at the moment they book tickets, price is their primary driver. Airlines should therefore follow a cost leadership strategy for economy.

In business class, airlines should de-commoditize by offering a differentiated service, which adds a higher perceived value to its customers. They should follow a product differentiation strategy. Innovations that will originate from this focus on business class should preferably be scalable to economy class and other types of aircraft as well.

Health & Wellness is a theme I find very interesting and which can be relevant in both classes. So I am already making a list of known problems and will probably post a new thread specific on H&W in the near future.

Thanks for your reactions; I will use them as qualitative input for my research and especially the discussion about my focus on business class will be taken into account.

The first class restroom on the Cathay 747 with the new first class should be big enough for acrobatics.

I wonder if a more interesting discussion wouldn't be the other way around: given the rising cost of air travel, are there any innovations that would allow airlines to transport more people in less space in a "sub-economy" type class?

Tiny stacked horizontal "berths" (think like a beehive) come to mind...maybe they could double capacity this way for people who aren't claustrophic...

I'm surprised this hasn't come up:
http://www.thompsonsolutions.co.uk/ts_cozysuite.html

Delta is getting these. Supposedly economy in the 767s will get more room and more seats. The staggered seats mean no more worrying about the girth of your neighbor.

That's utterly conventional wisdom, don't you think? And we see the robust health the industry enjoys as a result of following conventional wisdom.

I think the airlines have clearly surrendered considerable revenue by failing to create compelling, loyalty-magnetic products in economy class, and defaulting to a commodity-class strategy of "cost leadership." This keeps the considerable Y-class trade in a state of constant churn and low loyalty, which is stupid in an economy that finds all kinds of customers, titans of business included, forced to fly coach.

I would hope an innovative research effort would question conventional wisdom rather than swallow it whole.

Thanks to ralfp for linking to the DL next-gen coach product design... look also at the new CX economy being rolled out now... some of the most challenging and exciting thinking in this area is about improving the back of the bus.

Like this? http://www.upgradetravelbetter.com/2...economy-class/