Inside information: cabins set to take off

Various new aircraft seats were launched at the show as well as innovative new concepts, where manufacturers hoped to attract potential customers.

EADS Sogerma was hoping to find a launch customer for its Ultimate Sleeper concept.

Created in conjunction with Lufthansa Technik, this is an innovative Premium First Class bed and seating combination offering “the comfort of a real bed”.

“The minimum seat pitch is 81in offering the passenger a real bed environment in a contained cubicle, shielded by an automatic sliding door,” explained Jeffrey Forsbrey, cabin interior vice-president of sales.

The cubicle also has its own mini-bar, built-in wardrobe and 30in television screen.
“We are also looking at lighter weight materials, such as carbon fibre, for the surround rather than the composite materials,” said Forsbrey

EADS Sogerma hopes to have this product launched within two years.

Another promising new seat concept was displayed by B/E Aerosopace.

The Staggered Premium Suite concept is an innovative 2-2-2 layout, which allows both privacy and accessibility, but also gives an airline an overall higher density configuration. With a modern architectural design, the first class suite includes an electro-chromatic glass dividing screen, which provides the passenger with discretion at the touch of a button.

Recaro unveiled two new seats for economy and premium economy classes.

“Sitting for hours on long-haul flights in economy class will soon become a thing of the past,” said Kay Follath, regional sales director. Skycouch, coverts three adjacent seats into a lie-flat flexible space. It comes with an ergonomic leg-rest that can be folded up to a 60 or 90 degree angle.

Air New Zealand is the launch customer and will start refitting each of its long-range Boeing 777-300 aircraft with 20 rows of Skycouch seats in December.

Another seat on display was the PL3510 which, Recaro said, is designed to bridge the gap between economy and business class and offer remarkable living space and comfort.

“The PL3510 is a premium class seat. It has a pitch from 36 to 40 inches and offers more width. The distance between the armrests on an economy class seat measures up to 17.5 inches and the PL3510 features a wider, 19.5 inch seat surface,” said Follath.

B/E Aerospace unveiled its latest economy seat – Pinnacle – which uses advanced proprietary technologies that significantly reduce cost of ownership, simplify maintenance and increase the overall passenger living space. The company said the savings are a result of a 15 per cent weight reduction over the lightest seat on the market, achieved through an increased use of composites, as well as an integrated lightweight comfort suspension system and a new design method that reduces parts by more than 25 per cent.

Pinnacle has already been selected by nine airlines and leasing companies for economy class projects in new-buy Boeing 737, 787 and Airbus A320 aircraft.
Two companies happy to sit together are Lantal Textiles and ZIM Flugsitz, which develop and manufacture passenger seats for commercial aircraft.

They have launched a premium economy seat featuring Lantals pneumatic comfort system, previously used in its first and business class seats.

Angelika Zimmerman CEO of ZIM, said: “Lantal’s Pneumatic Comfort System adjusts automatically to the user’s seating posture, so passengers feel no pressure points even on long-haul flights.”