Across the globe, we have come to expect to navigate, operate and micromanage the world at an increasingly granular level through our personal devices.

The issue is no longer one of airlines driving customers to use their device as part of an airline process; customers expect airlines to provide processes and services via their devices. In travel, overall delivery of personal device-based services is increasing and new ideas are making their way to the skies.

Increasing in-flight connectivity

It’s estimated that the number of aircraft installed with in-flight connectivity (IFC) is expected to double from 9,026 at the end of 2020 to approximately 18,500 in 2029, according to The Future of In-Flight Connectivity – 2020 Edition, issued in February by Valour Consultancy. However, this will only represent just over half of the global passenger fleet, which is projected to reach nearly 34,000 by 2031 according to management consultancy Oliver Wyman.

A vision to embed the cabin interior into a digital ecosystem that enables passengers to fine-tune their flight experience from their mobiles and crew to manage services more efficiently has already been set out. Implementation is being held back –  the immediate hygiene requirements and financial challenges of the global health crisis have had a heavy impact. But the fact that passengers mobile devices are for the most part unconnected in flight is an issue still to be bridged.

Onboard entertainment through W-IFE

The first step for many airlines is likely to be wireless in-flight entertainment (W-IFE), which Valour’s report forecasts will be installed on almost three-quarters of the global narrow-body fleet by 2030, up from just over a third today.

However, as demands on the aircraft’s connected communications from passengers and crew increase, more sophisticated management will be required.

To address these needs Inmarsat and Boeing last summer unveiled ‘smart pipe’  infrastructure designed to independently allocate connectivity bandwidth to multiple applications onboard the new Boeing 777X. This means that applications delivered on Inmarsat’s GX Aviation and SwiftBroadband-Safety (SB-S) Satcom solutions are each able to have a unique service level agreement and guaranteed performance levels, independent of other applications that are operating through the same terminal.

For Philip Balaam, President of Inmarsat Aviation, this paves the way for a “more connected and integrated future, which is critical for airlines around the world that are transforming their business with the power of digital technology”. He adds: “This is a significant milestone in developing the truly connected aircraft.”

Smart cabin designs

Several leading OEMs began the groundwork on connected cabin technologies in 2019. It was a focus of Boeing’s ecoDemonstrator programme and among the components on the B777 flying testbed was Diehl Aviation’s eSmart Galley monument, which features new communications architecture. The crew interface can be customised to crew needs and support tasks, such as inventory and power management for increased efficiency.

Diehl’s overall smart cabin concept includes welcoming the passenger onboard using facial recognition, guiding them to their seat and reserved overhead bin space, plus the ability to book lavatory time slots, all via their mobile device.

Similarly, the Airbus Connected Experience platform is aimed at providing passengers with more options to control their experience via their personal devices, such as ordering food and beverages remotely, controlling the seat environment and inflight entertainment. For airlines, it offers the potential to harness aggregated usage trends for predictive maintenance analytics over the fleet, thereby improving cabin reliability, quality, sustainability and performance onboard.

A seamless experience

A first realisation step from Airbus is a standardised on-board hardware and software infrastructure known as Open Software Platform (OSP). This enables the integration of digital services from multiple vendors and will also support future data analytics.

Last autumn, charter airline Titan Airways became the first to deploy OSP with integrated Bluebox Aviation W-IFE on its two new A321 neoLRs. For Ingo Wuggetzer, Vice President – Cabin Marketing at Airbus, OSP’s key achievement is that it allows airlines to customise their onboard passengers experience without any hardware or certification impact and without affecting cabin design.

Wuggetzer also sees an opportunity for a seamless, end-to-end smartphone application that is a portal to flight information, health and hygiene elements on the ground and in the air, all geared to enabling the touchless journey. Airbus got the ball rolling in March with the launch of Tripset, a travel companion app that aggregates travel information to restore passenger trust in their end-to-end journey.

Replacing printed material

Inflight solutions that provide passengers with more flexible and touchless choices onboard and introduce more automation to support crew tasks have emerged over the past year.

For example, Panasonic Avionics’ Welcome Aboard collection includes a digital reader and companion app, which allows passengers to pre-plan their onboard entertainment and control their seat-back screen, plus ZeroTouch, a solution that remotely delivers data, be it software, media or content, to the aircraft.

Meanwhile, Thales InFlyt Experience is working on cabin automation to decrease congestion, facilitate aircraft disembarkation and manage passenger flow using synthetic data.

Perfecting passenger options

As passengers navigate an increasingly digital and touchless onboard experience, so providing services and choices that are relevant and geared to their needs becomes even more important. Sabine Taillardat, who heads SITA FOR AIRCRAFT’s Cabin Connectivity Services portfolio, notes: “The role of personalisation in the passenger experience is critical in a touchless environment.”

Taillardat adds that targeted content opens up opportunities to generate ancillary revenue. “By integrating IFC services with airlines’ passenger manifest and frequent flyer programmes, passengers can quickly connect to view personalised information for their aircraft and route – all through the safety of their own device. The digitally native flyers are demanding access to personalised content via streaming services such as Netflix and Spotify.”

The final few hurdles

Before the promise of personal device-based inflight services can be realised, Airbus has identified some key hurdles that the industry will need to tackle. These centre on interoperability and exchanging information. Ingo Wuggetzer says: “One of the challenges that need to be addressed is the creation of a standard platform and an ecosystem for all relevant stakeholders.”

The other concern is the ability to communicate across the travel chain to support end-to-end services for the passenger. He explains: “The challenge here is the exchange of information between different stakeholders: airports, airlines and other travel partners. For example, supporting a real-time connection to the ground cloud(s) is needed, where all related data are stored and updated. All information has to be aggregated into one portal to enable a touchless journey along the entire ‘door-to-door’ travel chain.”

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has been working on a common Airline Industry Data Model (AIDM), which all stakeholders should be buying into as it offers a common language for data exchange. The AIDM implements industry-agreed vocabulary, data definitions and data relationships. Projects, including those for baggage, offers and orders and aircraft load control and others, have already used IATA data exchange standards based on AIDM as a cornerstone of their solution.

• Hear from Pierre Charbonneau, Director, Passenger & Facilitation, IATA in our recent interview.

The digital revolution is here to stay

Even as the digital transition continues, digital processes are becoming slicker as users have come to expect more and more. The inflight data-consuming space cannot afford to be disconnected from the mobile travel ecosystem. Meeting consumers’ expectations that they can micromanage the world through their personal devices should be an intrinsic part of the mindset for the interiors supply chain moving forward.

Hygiene has become not just desirable, but a key indicator that passengers are looking for when flying. Inevitably though, as traffic picks up, the intensive cleaning regimes adopted by airlines in the first line of defence against coronavirus will impact aircraft turnaround times and schedule demands.

Instead, the materials technologists and cabin specialists are now working on surfaces and products to support airline requirements for hygiene and increased efficiency, while also reducing the need for harsh cleaning regimes. In the longer term, this will lead to aircraft interiors with in-built resistance against pathogens.

Surface coatings to cut down cleaning times

While new cabins may not be in current plans for many airlines, some are already deploying surface treatments with anti-microbial technology. Surfaces such as seats, tray tables, overhead bins and lavatories across United Airlines’ entire mainline and express fleets are being treated weekly with the surface de-contaminant Zoono Microbe Shield. The spray treatment, which is part of the airline’s United CleanPlus programme, bonds to surfaces and ruptures the cell walls and membranes of microbes that come into contact with it.

Last autumn, Corsair began progressively equipping their tray tables in the aircraft with a protective film incorporating antibacterial and antiviral properties. The film, developed by ADHETEC in partnership with Pylote, provides an immediate and stable microbial decontamination action without loss of effectiveness for four years and protects the tables from aggressive disinfectant products.

Collaboration leads to new solutions

A sense of what is possible in the future can be glimpsed in some recent collaborations. Tapis Corporation, SIMONA Boltaron and Molon Labe Seating joined forces last summer to demonstrate a solution for safer travel. The starting point was Molon Labe’s S2 seat, which features a fresh air vent in the one-sided headrest that can also be rotated to form a physical barrier between passengers.

The seat back, seat pan, armrests and headrests are covered in Promessa Ultrafabric from Tapis, which includes antimicrobial silver ion technology in the top skin. Boltaron’s 9815N FAR-rated material was then used for the thermoformed seat backs, which has an antimicrobial treatment as standard.

“Between [all of] us, we had something like greater than 90% of the seat’s surfaces covered in antimicrobial technology without compromising passenger comfort or experience,” reports Matthew Nicholls, Sales Director at Tapis. He adds that Tapis and its partner Ultrafabrics have seen the addition of Promessa AV to JetBlue Airways, Spirit Airlines and American Airlines fleets in the past 12 months.

Surfaces that self-clean

Safran Cabin has teamed up with 3M to help design cleaner aircraft cabin interiors as part of Safran’s ‘Travel Safe’ initiative. Their current focus is developing a residual antimicrobial coating that can be sprayed or wiped on to make a surface continuously antimicrobial for at least 30 days, claiming the ability to kill 99.9% of viruses and bacteria in 10 minutes.

“It is our goal to create a ‘self-disinfecting’ interior using this technology,” says Nathan Kwok, Vice President Marketing at Safran Cabin. Their planned next step will be to make antimicrobial and easy-clean properties a permanent feature of the interior surface. Kwok explains: “We are currently studying ways to integrate our polymer into the huge variety of materials, colours, and textures that exist today. The goal is that every surface is antimicrobial, without sacrificing the richness of the colour and texture palette.”

Resistance to disinfectants

Matthew Nicholls at Tapis also notes that materials and surface coatings will need to have resistance to disinfectants if they are going to last into the future, with requirements from airlines evolving to include the ability to clean surfaces with a wide variety of aviation-approved disinfectants.

As an example, American Airlines’ recent 737-800 upgrades included cabin dividers from Jamco America covered in Tapis 9-series Ultraleather, which has antimicrobial silver ion technology embedded in the surface layers. The finish is resistant to cleaning materials used in foggers and hydrostatic sprayers while still being able to be cleaned with alcohol, quaternary ammonium, bleach and hydrogen peroxide-based cleaners without damage.

Other suppliers also highlight the robustness of anti-pathogenic products against contaminants and cleaning agents. For example, high-touch interior replacement parts, such as tray tables and lavatory seats, from Aereos Interior Solutions are certified greater than 99.8% effective against microbes, while also protecting the surface finish.

Removing chemicals from cleaning

Once the cabin’s fixtures and fittings are covered with antimicrobial technology, a review of cleaning regimes will be needed. The elimination of chemicals in aircraft cabin cleaning is a key goal for Muirhead Leather. Its Active Hygiene Leather has built-in antimicrobial self-cleaning properties thanks to permanently integrating Polygiene® ViralOff^TM into the leather during the production process, breaking down bacteria that cause odours as well as viruses to over 99% within two hours.

Myles Hobbs, Head of Sales (Aviation) EMEA and The Americas recommends maintaining its product with only pH-neutral soap and sparing use of water. “During our 7–10-year product life cycle, there is no need to use any lotion, potions, or chemicals,” he says.

Still some challenges to overcome

Incorporating antimicrobial technology into products has challenges. Nicholls says that getting silver content just right is a science in its own right. He goes on to explain that you have to have enough silver particles to provide a safe surface, but as the quantity increases, they can become hard to distribute evenly, also increasing weight and decreasing durability.

Defining a new regulatory paradigm around antimicrobial materials will also be tough, according to Kwok. “Most cleaning and disinfecting guidance documents were written around chemicals that worked while wet, and never envisioned that the surface itself was also the disinfectant. So, now we need to decide as an industry, what level of efficacy is sufficient to declare a surface self-disinfecting? This requires a lot of collaboration across different regulatory agencies because consistency will be important in building confidence.”

Nicholls concurs: “We need to make sure that we’re not compromising other key aspects of the fundamental passenger experience in our rush to solve the COVID issues.”

Hidden benefits of surface coatings need clear messaging

Communicating the hygiene and safety benefits of cleaning regimes to passengers is already part of airline strategies to reassure people that it is safe to fly. It is key when the hygiene technology is embedded in the interior and, as Kwok notes, works invisibly. “There are a variety of ways to do this, including colour and graphical indications on the surface itself, as well as messaging directly to the passengers during the safety briefing or even during the booking process,” he says.

“Our first goal is safety, but also a more relaxed travel experience. We hope that when passengers see the Safran logo, they have confidence that surface does not need that extra squirt of spray cleaner they brought with them because the technology inside the surface works even better.”

Airline requirements for hygiene solutions will evolve as air travel recovery gets underway. In the short term, regular surface treatments would seem to be the natural solution. In the longer term, more innately hygienic interiors mean that there will be improved and potentially less costly cleaning regimes. Ultimately, consistent standards for antimicrobial technologies in aircraft will need to be established to continue to build confidence in air travel.

Moves to reduce emissions are currently concentrated on airframe and operational innovations, plus new energy sources, while the interiors community’s focus is on materials and systems that underpin cabin function.

The transformation of the cabin will be largely incremental and almost invisible, but nonetheless vital in supporting aviation’s environmental goals. And when we look back from the future, these will all add up to a quiet revolution.

The route to carbon neutrality

Lukas Kaestner is the Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer of the Sustainable Aviation Lab, the organisation behind the Sustainable Aero Lab accelerator programme for start-ups aiming to move aviation to a sustainable future.

Kaestner observes: “For aviation to reach carbon neutrality, there will be no single method to get us there, but instead we will have to look at a combination of many factors – and this includes interiors.” He adds: “We still see weight as one of the key components to lowering emissions, and we believe interiors can play an important role here.”

The requirement for low maintenance lightweight interiors can only increase in importance as carriers position themselves for the post-coronavirus recovery and turn to addressing environmental goals.

Innovative changes to the seat cushion, pan and structure, lightweight materials and recycled leather covers, plus optimised components all helped Recaro Aircraft Seating deliver an 8kg seat that requires 50% less maintenance. In March 2021, the SL3710 economy seat made its North American debut on Frontier Airlines’ A320neo aircraft to support the low-cost carrier’s (LCC) quest of being ‘America’s Greenest Airline’.

The Recaro seats will also be rolled out to fellow carriers in the Indigo Partners portfolio of airlines, including Wizz Air. The European LCC aims to reduce its carbon footprint via a combination of utilising efficient Airbus aircraft and prioritising lightweight cabin products.

Sustainable composite materials

Similarly, Cecence, whose mission is to bring the benefits of lightweight sustainable composites to the industry, has collaborated with Doy Design to utilise bio-resin in a compression moulding process to develop a seat weighing just over 7kg. The team state the Ultra Slim concept can reduce the overall cabin weight of a short-haul A320 by over 500kg compared to existing lightweight seats on the market.

Speaking with Samantha Bunyan, Cecence Co-Founder & Head of Industry Engagement, she explains that bio resins are manufactured from agricultural waste and provide comparative strength with more traditional phenolic resins. She adds: “Integrating recycled carbon fibre and where possible natural fibres to replace or work alongside more typical reinforcements such as virgin carbon and glass fibre can contribute a great deal to reducing the carbon footprint of the cabin interior and in the case of natural plant fibres in particular, through their ability to sequester CO2 through their growth, prior to transformation into an end product.”

Cecence is working closely with the UK’s National Composites Centre on a life cycle analysis that has been built into its sustainable seat back development programme. Bunyan says: “We have collected wide ranging data from where the materials originate, how they are transported, how waste can be eliminated and where energy savings can be made. This enables a greater awareness of which elements within the supply chain and within the manufacturing process can be adjusted to deliver an end product where the carbon footprint is significantly reduced.”

Focus on the full life cycle

Incorporating the ability to recycle, re-use and repurpose into design processes is challenging. Boom Supersonic, which is developing the next-gen Overture supersonic commercial aircraft, is planning for a decommissioning and recycling process that may not begin for 40 years. In a Boom blog post published in March 2021, Raymond Russell, Head of Sustainability and Environment, acknowledges that today an international recycling standard is not in place for many of the materials that will be used to build Overture.

“Our team is focused on selecting materials that have the highest probability for safe recycling, in addition to weighing critical aspects such as safety and performance,” he says. “Looking closely at recycling, we’re examining the likelihood of whether a market will exist for those recycled materials in several decades. If we were to recycle Overture today, the supply chain may not support the effort. But in 30 to 40 years from now, that same supply chain should be thriving.”

Kaestner agrees that sustainable aviation needs a mindset that covers all aspects of the value chain, including end-of-life. The Sustainable Aero Lab is currently focused on lowering all emissions of flights, however, it is also open to supporting end-of-life solutions. “Separately, for aircraft interiors, I see the end-of-life discussion as one of the most pressing. The current status here is not satisfying enough,” Kaestner says.

A different approach to sustainability

Another approach to lightweight cabins is to innovate around reducing the amount of water that has to be carried onboard. Diehl Aviation’s Grey Water Re-use concept, winning entry at the 2020-21 Crystal Cabin Awards, treats greywater from the wash hand basin for re-use in flushing the lavatory. The cabin equipment and systems OEM claims that reducing water consumption onboard offers cost savings and can make a significant contribution to reducing the environmental impact of air traffic.

It’s not just lightweight material in traditional aircraft that could lead to more sustainable flight, but also the raft of small hybrid- and electric-powered aircraft in development. If the ambitions of the organisations involved come to fruition, some could be in service before the end of the decade.

For example, Rolls-Royce, Italian airframer Tecnam and Widerøe, Scandinavia’s largest regional airline, are aiming to introduce a small all-electric commuter plane into service in 2026. The Electric Aviation Group also expects that its 70+ seat HERA or Hybrid Electrical Regional Aircraft will be ready for delivery in 2028. EAG also views HERA as a blueprint for larger, long range aircraft concepts as propulsion and energy storage technologies develop.

New digital tools will also be key to building more sustainability into ‘start-of-life’ product development and iteration processes. The autonomous sustainable cabin project, ANKA, launched last autumn by technological research and development platform ZAL alongside Airbus is working to create simulation and measurement methods that will reduce the number of test flights usually required to assess the real potential of new technologies to increase cabin comfort. ANKA is applying this approach to simulating and testing the performance of new advanced materials to reduce noise and vibration in the aircraft cabin.

Sustainability the number one priority for airlines

More than 100 years before the Wright brothers took to the air, Sir George Cayley defined the principals of aerodynamics, and it immediately occurred to him that new technologies to make planes lighter would be a critical issue. Cayley’s desire to reduce weight is no less relevant today as the aviation industry focuses on reducing its carbon footprint and improving sustainability

Climate change demands disruptive thinking from the entire aviation industry. The challenges – and opportunities – facing the cabin interiors community may not be as eye catching as new aircraft designs and low-emission propulsion, but they are vital to effect the necessary paradigm shift of the future. To all intents and purposes, for airlines and passengers, the cabin may pretty much look the same, and may perhaps be all the better for its familiarity, but it will function smarter and better in every way possible.

As the biggest awards ceremony for the cabin interiors industry, the Crystal Cabin Award winners often points to what we can expect to see on planes in the future.

The awards ceremony is usually held at Aircraft Interiors Expo, and was delayed due to the pandemic. Instead, the award ceremony was held virtually on 30 March 2021, with an excited audience tuning into the livestream.

The shortlist contained 24 entries from a wide range of aviation businesses, including heavyweights such as Airbus, Safran and Diehl Aviation. The judges then managed to decide on the eight winners for the 2020/21 awards. Find them all below:

Cabin Concepts

Taking home this award is ‘Alice’, the first completely electric commuter jet. Built by Israeli company Eviation Aircraft, the jet first appeared at the 2019 Paris Airshow.

The innovative cabin concept was designed by Almadesign and features a fishbone layout to utilise the available space.

Nominees

• Virgin Atlantic Upper Class Loft, Virgin Atlantic, AIM Altitude, Factorydesign, Boltaron, Isovolta, Mankiewicz UK & F.H.Lambert
• 777x Sky Architecture, The Boeing Company, Teague

Visionary Concepts

With aviation needing to innovate, this category helps to look ahead. Winning the award is AIRBUS with its Airspace Cabin Vision 2030, and extension of its “Airspace” concept.

The concept allows the cabin to be digitally tailored to passenger needs with flexible seating and lounge configurations.

Nominees

• ARCA – Galley Systems, AIM ALTITUDE
• Galaxy: Flatbed for A321, AirGo Design

Material and Components

This category focuses on advances in the enormous variety of materials and components. The winner is a panel based on In-Mold Electronics (IME) from e₂ip technologies in association with National Research Council of Canada. The surface-printed electrical circuitry saves on the complex and heavy cabin electronics.

The IME control element can be seamlessly integrated and can complete a range of functions including positioning of the aircraft seat.

Nominees

• Experience Line Bridge, Diehl Aerospace
• Jade Reading Light, Schott

Greener Cabin, Health, Safety and Environment

This hotly contested category is awarded to Diehl Aviation with its Greywater Reuse Unit. Taking the handwash water (greywater) from the sink and reusing to flush the toilet instead of potable water.

The Reuse Unit would help to reduce the amount of potable water on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner by 250kg and a CO2 saving of 550 tonnes per year per aircraft.

Nominees

• AudioBack, ATR
• Zero economy meal tray, PriestmanGoode

Passenger Comfort Hardware

For ideas that enhance passenger comfort, this category was won by Safran Seats with its Modulair S economy seat concept.

Developed in cooperation with the French university ENCSi, the seat can be extended with various features, bringing creature comforts such as neck support to the largest section of seating.

Nominees

• Space For All, Adient Aerospace
• The Row 1 airport wheelchair system, Ciara Crawford

Cabin Systems

The winner is the SOPHY^TM smart trolley system from Safran Cabin. This tiny module can be installed into existing catering trolleys and provides the operator with information on the entire journey of the equipment, from maintenance and cleaning needs.

Nominees

• Lite2fix, SFS and Jetlite
• Next Gen Connectivity Mobile ONAIR 4G, SITAONAIR

In-Flight Entertainment and Connectivity

As the fastest growing sector of aviation, IFEC receives plenty of innovations. This time, the winner is SAFRAN Passenger Innovations department with RAVE Bluetooth Audio.

The problem of too many passengers using Bluetooth enabled headphones is solved by this solution as it controls power and antenna direction to each passenger or seat.

Nominees

• Multi-Screen Experience, JetBlue Airways
• Spafax IQ, Spafax

University

Highlighting new ideas from universities, the winner in 2020 is University of Cincinnati. Their Coffee House Cabin concept would place a long work table down the centre of the plane to allow for productive work groups.

The idea was developed with The Boeing Company and The Live Well Collaborative.

Nominees

• Isofix, The University of Applied Sciences Hamburg (HAW)
• Collapsible beds for Flying V

More Crystal Cabin awards to be won in 2021

To recognise the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on aviation, there will be two new categories in 2021: Clean & Safe Air Travel” and the “Judges’ Choice Award”. Find out more about them on the Crystal Cabin Awards website.

Update: The shortlist has been revealed for the two new categories. Find them on the AIX Hub here.