SE AT ING INNOVAT ION
Clean lines, clean experience
“I believe that the aviation industry was ripe for some changes, and this crisis could
be an opportunity to re-think the way we fly both commercially and privately,” says
Jacques Pierrejean, founder of the Pierrejean Vision design studio.
“As a designer, one of the first things that came to my mind (having spent
considerable time considering the passenger experience) is how to adapt the cabin
layout to best accommodate both the efficiency of the sanitation processes,
together with passenger comfort,” he adds. “Materials are going to be key here,
with every seat, surface and cover having the capability to be easily cleaned.
Using some variety of paper material, each seat would be covered completely,
and this cover could then be removed and replaced, ready for the next flight.”
Pierrejean has conceptualised a premium economy seat design which
prioritises individual privacy and hygiene. Instead of individual seats in a
row, a bench-like design has fewer gaps and recesses, making it easier
to clean, while each passenger could have a bubble around their head to
separate them from their neighbour. In order to minimise the touching of
surfaces, the IFE systems would be controlled by passengers using their
smartphones via Bluetooth.
“We are entering a period where air travel is going to be looked at
with a certain amount of trepidation, so everyone in the industry
– from designers and manufacturers, to airlines and cabin crew
– will have to make a shift in order to ease this fear and assure
passengers of their safety on board,” adds Pierrejean. “We will have
to think of airplanes more like hospital spaces – comfortable, yet
always prioritising cleanliness and hygiene.”
aircraftinteriorsinternational.com
066 JUNE 2020
SOCIAL DISTANCING
WITH HIGH DENSITY
The design and engineering
teams at Aviointeriors have been
studying solutions that would
enable social distancing in while
maintaining cabin density. One
proposal is the Janus seat, an
economy triple with the centre
seat reversed, facing aft in order
to maximise separation between
passengers. Passengers seated in
the outer seats face the direction
of flight.
Facing a different direction
helps separate passengers, but
that alone doesn’t isolate them;
hence all three passengers
in a triple are separated by
transparent shields to help
prevent breath propagation, with
the centre seats contained at the
rear and on both sides. Further
shields on the aisle seats would
help protect occupants from
people walking through the aisle.
According to Aviointeriors,
the backwards-facing centre
seats occupy the same space
as the outer seats, and do not
require additional seat pitch or
extra space for access and exit
clearance.
Fitting shields could create an
issue for disabled access, an issue
which Aviointeriors has worked
to solve by adding a foldable or
sliding function to the shields on
the aisle seats. The shields are
made of easy-to-clean materials
to aid hygiene, and could be
specified in an opaque material
or with different degrees of
transparency.
/aircraftinteriorsinternational.com