DESIGN: AirSleeper Premium Economy concept – entrant in Crystal Cabin Awards

• DESIGN: AirLounge™ from Collins Aerospace, Finnair, PriestmanGoode, Tangerine – finalist in Crystal Cabin Awards
• DESIGN: AirSleeper Premium Economy concept – entrant in Crystal Cabin Awards
• DESIGN: Air 4 All Systems – Wheelchair seating solution – finalist in Crystal Cabin Awards

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Over the next few weeks, I will feature some of the more interesting innovations proposed – as judged by me – in the shortlisted entries for the annual Crystal Cabin Awards. This creative playfield is where designers, engineers and visionaries plan the future of the aircraft passenger experience. Returning as an in-person event on 14 June 2022, the Awards will see an international expert jury at Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg decide who will win the aviation industry’s trophies this year.

AirSleeper

The AirSleeper is an aircraft seating architecture that enables a luxurious travel experience at a price point affordable to much of the 3 billion air travelers each year. It is the culmination of multiple technologies that meet a unique set of engineering challenges and addresses key safety, ergonomic, and spatial-optimization challenges. 

The mini-suite that AirSleeper offers is a dramatic improvement over all existing premium economy and most business class layouts. Each passenger has a personal area that allows for privacy and includes a clean air supply along with a seat that converts to a flat horizontal bed, a multi-surface work top and features that make family travel more enjoyable.

Due to its space-optimizing configuration, AirSleeper can exceed the passenger density of existing premium economy offerings and therefore allow a substantially more comfortablepassenger experience at affordable Premium Economy prices. 

Airlines adopting AirSleeper will improve their economics and branding by catering to a huge but underserved market and accordingly increase revenues, enabling an explosive capture of market share.Entry Documentation from Millenium

2PAXfly Takeout

This is another timely reminder to wear your seatbelt when seated. Holding you close to your seat will protect you from the sort of injuries sustained on this flight, when unsecured passengers flew to the ceiling of the aircraft, and then came crashing down once the ‘drop’ ceased.

The hope will be that this is an anomaly – a ‘freak accident’ in casual parlance. If it is a systemic error either mechanical or electronic, then this is a larger concern for the airlines that fly Boeing Dreamliner 787 aircraft. Let’s hope it isn’t. If it is, it will pile on the woes to Boeing’s existing stack.

I include this entry, not because I think it will ever be implemented, but because it is so different from where we are at the moment in aircraft interiors. It’s all a bit too closed in with too much engineering for a premium economy experience. I think it might be too expensive to implement for the intended economy segment. It also is a big departure from what we have now, which may require a greater sense of adventure than most airline execs have!

Here are some more images from the video:

Other Posts in the Series

DESIGN: Air 4 All Systems – Wheelchair seating solution – finalist in Crystal Cabin Awards >>