IFEC INNOVATIONS
ABOVE AND BELOW: THE OLED
PANEL LUFTHANSA TECHNIK
DISPLAYED AT NBAA-BACE 2019
Many designers have presented VIP interior
concepts integrating OLED panels, as a way
of turning an aircraft’s sidewalls and ceilings
into blank canvasses. Other concepts imagine
transparent OLED bulkheads or windows, that
enable screens to be visible when in use, and hidden
when not. At NBAA-BACE 2019, Lufthansa Technik
presented its progress in making these ideas
possible – demonstrating a 110in (279.4cm) OLED
ceiling panel and a transparent OLED running a
video that was only visible on one side.
“We’re showing a number of technologies to
get into conversations with customers to find out
how they would like to apply the technologies in
the aircraft,” says Andrew Muirhead, head of the
Original Equipment Innovation Division at Lufthansa
Technik. “OLED is very viable; we’ve just made the
first flights with it on the Lufthansa FlyingLab, and
now we’re going to the next stage of developing
specific products in conjunction with customers.”
044 businessjetinteriorsinternational.com
JANUARY 2020
Muirhead says the main thing still to fully
address in bringing transparent OLED panels to
market is integration. “The technology itself is not
so much the big issue, it’s figuring out how best
to integrate it so you can still use the window and
addressing what it looks like when it’s turned off,”
he says. “It’s about finding the right structure to
place in front of the windows. We’re talking to a
number of potential customers about that.”
Lufthansa Technik has spent the last two years
taking the technology through qualification testing,
running it under ultraviolet conditions, running it
in a pressure chamber and so on.
“We’ve taken it through a tonne of tests, for
flammability, toxicity, and so on – we’re confident
on the technology,” says Muirhead.
He also points out that an OLED display has
already been integrated on an aircraft by Lufthansa
Technik – as part of the Touch dial CMS control on
the Bombardier Global 7500.
OLED panels
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