Booklet 2 Exploration Project

British

Airw

ays

Egyp

tair

Qata

r Airw

ays

Emirat

es2 Interviews& Response

Page 2-7

Page 8-11 Page 12-17

Page 18-21

Long Haul Passengers

Plane Interior/ Pilot/ Engineer

Air Routes/ Airlines/ Evacuation Boarding Routine/ Interior space

iContains 13 Key insights marked with this label.

Interviews with long haul passengersObjective - To find insights into an area which I have only had personal experience in once. All of the candidates travel long haul frequently around the world on a mixture of class types.

What follows are the key notes from my face to face interviews with long haul passengers ...

1 2 3 4 5

1

Travels to :Asia, 11 hours on

average

KLM and Emirates

Doesn’t TalkDoesn’t Watch Films

Sleeps

Flight CommentsPrefers KLM as interior to Emirates looks cheap with fake wood panelling and details. Gets up and stands to stretch legs, doesn’t walk around the cabin much to explore. KLM interior is more open and spacious with nice details. First class emirates and BA have a bar on board.

Departure Lounge CommentsLots of closed off small area’s instead of one large area, one large buffet to eat anything you like. À lot of staff tend to you like its a hotel with emirates first class separate to business, but in KLM they are joined.There are a lot more men flying business to women, around 30/2 ratio.

Gets up to stand and stretch legs but doesn’t walk around the cabin.8

Rose Wong - Business Class 747

2

Travels to :Around the world10 hours average

Air France & KLM

Likes good foodLikes Films

Hard to Sleep

Flight CommentsGets more jet lag flying east and feels airlines try best to keep you in seat with constant service. Problem with emirates is there is no chance to sleep with it broken into 2 6hrs rather than one 14hr. Japan customers usually want the newer planes. A young audience would converse more in communal areas to get contacts, KLM do a who’s flying service where you go on peoples linked-in profiles. Feels like flight is his time off and doesn’t want to do much work as he’s generally travelling to a location for business.

Departure Lounge CommentsParis has best all round departure lounge experienceDrink helps him relieve tension of flying but, there is a drinking culture in some lounges and people pay to get in and have free drinks which makes the business and first class lounges lose some of their quality.

Douglas Maclennan - Business & Economy 747

Airlines try to keep you in your seat and restrict walking areas.9

3

Craig Moore - Business/ First 747 & A380

Travels to :Asia and America6 times a year

Emirates & KLM

Travels aloneLikes Films

Likes business class

Flight CommentsEmirates a380 has bar at front and back, air France a380 has strange seating area that nobody uses at front and bar can be noisy disturbing passengers. Helsinki airport is excellent hub for getting to Asia and America. Air miles keep you with the same airline brand. When flying a lot it looses its romanticism. First class has been on decline but is about to go on the rise with business market growing ever larger. Subtle colours and lights on interior help relaxation. Smooth ride and quiet is paramount on long haul.747 has noticeably worse quality now compared to a380 and is aging, good conversing at bar area on the a380 with friends and meeting new people from across the world.

Departure Lounge CommentsBusiness want seamless speed through airport and Dubai has most seamless departure lounge allowing you to get straight on plane via lounge.

Flying has lost its romanticism and first class has been revitalised by luxury airlines.10

Communal bar Area on A380 can be noisy and disturb passengers trying to sleep.11

4

Barbara Tully - Business & Economy 747 & 777

Travels to :Asia through Dubai

with 6 hours, 2 hour wait then 7 hours

Emirates

Was talkativeLikes Films/TVDoesn’t Sleep

Flight CommentsDoesn’t mind not having the window as usually flies in dark and nothing to see however does like watching the planes progress over the world on monitor map, also likes landing camera, these are enough for her to feel connected and have a sense of direction progress and speed throughout the journey, because as the planes so quite you get no sense you are actually moving and this helps her feel in control.If she was to put up the divide she would do it at the beginning of the flightShe doesn’t always put up the divide between the seats and used to talk to passengers quite a lot until realised they can go on forever when you want to do other things and don’t want to be rude.

Departure Lounge CommentsAlways plans to do loads of work and is most likely to do some in the departure lounge rather than on the plane but does do more in economy because business feels more relaxing and therefore more prone to not do work.

Window/ Progress on screen gives her sense of control, easing anxiety, knowing they are moving.12

5

Sooa Yun - Economy 747 & A380

Has to frequently walk around aircraft and stand in galley to exercise swollen legs in economy.13

Travels to :Korea economy to see family every

year

KLM

Polite but doesn’t talk often on flight

Sleeps with no incline sometimes

Flight CommentsPrefers aisle seat, the window comforts her but doesn’t want to sit next to it as the responsibility of opening it can burden her and make her not want to open it.Gets swollen legs so walks around a lot and would welcome a communal area to do this in comfortably.Goes and stands in galley sometimes to stretch.Uncomfortable when seat is not inclined but feels rude to incline if person behind isn’t.

Departure Lounge CommentsIncheon airport is amazing as its newAnd sometimes the wait in Amsterdam is 8 to 12 hours when flying on the cheap flights so shows a clear difference of quality on the prime times.

Interviews with validators

It’s sounds like an interesting project. The first thing I would say is that you have given yourself way too much work to do. Try to set up some restraints early on in terms of what you’re designing so that you can focus on doing a few things really well, rather than doing loads of things that are okay.

How far in the future would it come out?What Market are you aiming it at? - Europe, Asia etc.Long Haul or Short Haul?First Class, Business, Premium Economy, Economy?Realistic or very conceptual?How many passengers? - Less or more than current offerings. Retrofitting an existing Plane or will it be a brand new one?

Richard WattersDesigner

Priestmangoode(Public Transport interior

Design company)

Adam WhiteDirector

Factory Design(Aviation and product

Design company)

A very current concept in the industry, so much so that Airbus patented a radical version on the problem on 27/11/14. Could face backward at take off and landing as it is safer but like many things in aviation the public needs to accept it, have to be seated and belted for these procedures though. It needs to be aimed at 10-20 years time. Composite materials can be bended in complex curves in comparison to aluminium so is perfect for this. Is there a vehicle you could design which takes passengers through whole airport experience to the plane. Departure lounge and plane interior have had a lot of investment individually by airlines however the journey between the two is very disjointed.Fly routes have to be bought by new companies suspending their development and there are particular historic flying routes which the tier 1 airlines own to monopolise the market. Emirates want to fly everyone out of Dubai so hub placement is key to your flagship route. A Jet electric hybrid is viable for sustaining flight so could be considered. Look at difference between Hub to Hub and Point to Point.

Phone Conversation

Email Conversation

You picked an interesting topic. I have done extensive research and trials with different seating configurations, as well as studies towards activity-focused areas. None of these offered the accessibility qualities of regular seating configurations and more importantly they did not match the efficiency criteria.

It is a trade-off between ‘the least you could do’ for the passenger experience (make it acceptable and compensate for the loss of private windows) and the pressing efficiency (price+fuel) requirements. No airline company wants to sacrifice valuable floor surface to lounges (that happened incidentally in the 70’s) Unlike a floating cruise ship, aircraft spend a lot of energy to stay up in the air, and time+energy = money, (BWB) is solely being designed to make flying more efficient -30% fuel+emissions), if you immediately spend that benefit by making less efficient use of the floor surface, then what’s the point of developing this new aircraft? The larger the aircraft, the more efficient its fuel consumption, but only if it is as fully loaded as possible with passengers. Fuel and Cost/Revenue are indicated per PSK or PSM (passenger-seat-kilometer/mile). —> less seats: more costs/fuel per PSK.

I would suggest looking for solutions to deal with privacy in the open space, or you could completely focus on hand-luggage and its place in the aircraft, that currently effects boarding time.You could also focus on the combination of extremely large aircraft (BWB) and hub-centered air-travel. Which means that these large aircraft are only used between a select group of strategically placed airports (hubs) and these hubs are then linked to local air travel with smaller aircraft. This way the large aircraft are always full on long stretches and fly most efficiently. This is especially interesting when you look at experience for the passenger.

Zeger Van der Voet

Designer

Zeger Ontwerp(Designed a blended wing

Interior concept)

Email Conversation

Interviews with specialists

Evacuation is something that is a problem with blended wing aircraft so it would be good to look into.There was another about using flat screens to show the outside world to passengers to remove the structural problems of windows. Carbon fibre has been used for years for aircraft wings but the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 are the first all carbon fibre aircraft.Carbon fibre composite. The advantage is that for a given weight it is much stronger than aluminium. I’m not sure about different shapes, I guess this would depend upon its strength to volume ratio rather than strength to weight ratio.The difference between flying wing and blended wing is that a blended wing has a discernible fuselage but a flying wing does not and may just have a bulge for the cockpit. So a blended wing would be more suitable for a passenger aircraft with more space inside. As for the size, I would not have thought there would have been any problems. I have seen an early blended wing design that had three fuselage side by side in the wing so it could carry three times as many passengers as an equivalent length conventional plane. There will be size limitations but there have been reports that airlines are favouring smaller aircraft rather than the massive A380 anyway. I think Boeing is aiming at 400-500 passengers for whatever it develops after the x-48.

Asked how far can a pilot fly:It’s a very complicated area I’m afraid as it depends on a lot of things including how many nights you’ve had in home base before hand, what time of day you start work etc. but in general on a flight over 7/8 hours, long rest in a bunk is needed. On flights over 10/11 hours there is generally a 4-man crew, with each crew member having about 7 hours rest on a 16 hour flight for example.

Paul TomlinsonEngineer

Thales AerospaceEmail conversation

Oliver FosterPilot

Ethiad Airways

Email Conversation

Email Conversation

Reflection after interviews

The following is a list of key insights I gained from my interviews with validators and specialist and they will determine what I need to explore next :

Which airlines are struggling and what air routes are most popular around the world?14

What is difference between Hub and Point in air travel, where’s the best location for a Hub?15

For extended Long haul flights multiple crews are needed which requires more space.16

Evacuation is a problem with the blended wing aircraft.17

A communal space is potentially not financially viable for Airlines.18

Boarding Process is an area which could be explored with this aircraft..19

United Airlines : USAAbout to merge with US airways which will create biggest airline in the world

China Southern : ChinaHeadquarters in Guangzhou it is the largest airline in china

Egyptair : EgyptBased in Cairo and location between Europe, Africa, Asia helps a lot

Emirates : UAEBased in Dubai, most flights are long haul and is 11th busiest airport in world

Delta : USA Based in Atlanta the world’s busiest airport, highest number of passengers per year

Qatar Airways : QatarBased in Doha provides best service but only has population of 2million

Air France : France Based in Paris which is most visited city in the world

British Airways : Great BritainBased in London at Heathrow with own terminal 5 and 3rd busiest airport in world

Lufthansa : GermanyWorlds biggest airline by revenue and visits every continent

Turkish Airlines : TurkeyIstanbul’s location provides the means to travel to all these locations

The biggest airlinesPassengersCountries

106 48Million

89 51.6Million

83 76.3Million

78 40Million

73 18Million

71 164.6Million

70 66.4Million

66 11.8Million

60 139.2Million

35 86.5Million

Delta

United

British

Airw

ays

Air

Fran

ce

Luft

hans

a

Egyp

tair

Turk

ish

Airlines

Qata

r Airw

ays

Emirat

es

China

Sout

hern

Delta

United

China Southern

Lufthansa

Emirates

Air France

Turkish Airlines

British Airways

Qatar Airways

Egyptair

Turkish Airlines

Air France

Lufthansa

British Airways

Qatar Airways

Delta

Emirates

Egyptair

United

China Southern

Most Passengers served in order

Most Countries served in order

Emirates has the best ratio of passenger to countries served. Perhaps because of its dedicated A380 hub for long haul flights.

Direct flight route maps

Objective - To simplify the direct flight routes into an area on the world map to better understand where the top airlines are flying and if there is an optimum place to put a hub for the long blended wing aircraft.

Heathrow and Paris are the busiest airports that fly out of Europe, which means the legacy carriers still have a purpose and a passenger base. However, I need to identify where the cheap carriers and luxury carriers are taking the customers. British Airways connects to Singapore and to both coasts of America. Air France interestingly have a very busy flight path to the French colony island in south America.

Busiest flights out of Europe

Australia, Canada, and Lower South Africa/America are the least directly visited by airlines and could be an opportunity for a flagship route. However is there a passenger base to fill the seats. A low scale aircraft brand which has a good location combined with a hub dedicated to an aircraft like the A380, could provide the perfect brand foundation for the blended wing flagship aircraft.

Possible Hub Locations

Asia: Japan/ChinaAn emerging market which always wants

the newer aircraft.Good point connections to AmericaAlready has busy connection to UK

Europe: UK/FinlandCould be an already established tip of

the hub triangleHelsinki has efficient turn around to

shanghai

South Africa/South AmericaTwo possible emerging markets which would provide the point connections to not well travelled southern hemisphere.

Objective - Outside of northern America understand where the market potential is across the world.

Vs

London

Berlin

Brussels

Madrid

Moscow

Understanding hub placement

Allows airlines to reach more distant cities. Opens up possibilities for large aircraft such as

A380 to travel more efficiently.Timings and journey time are usually delayed

with a trickle down effect at the hub.

Using a Hub as a transfer between the locations, passengers then change aircraft and usually

change seats.

Hub and Spoke

Luxury Airlines such as Emirates predominantly use this method as

its ideal for long haul.

London

Paris

Dubai

Shanghai

Sydney

Reduces travel timeReduces risk of baggage being lost

However aircraft able to turn round less often so less trips available and airlines have a limited range based on the maximum range of today’s

aircraft.

The Aircraft travels direct to the location with no transfers

Point to Point

Cheap Airlines use this system as its ideal for short range flights within a country or continent.

Evacuation guidelinesEvacuation doors are currently only placed on vertical sides. The BWB has very little

vertical sides, only on the two front angles.

Blended Wing Aircraft

Objective - Understand why the engineer gave the insight that blended wing aircraft have a problem with evacuation

The dotted lines seem to be the only way to exit the aircraft, with 6 doors at the front. But what

about the back?

20Could a cargo door at back or

boarding in middle help evacuation?

i

i

Every new airplane model must receive a 90-second evacuation drill certification from

the FAA

Departure Lounge Queuing Ticket Check Jet Bridge

Passenger journey

Passengers

From my interviews I found that the boarding procedure is a disjointed experience. I was surprised to hear that even in business you go from the two luxury areas through a sky bridge with economy. Rose from my first interview shared photos of her recent experience

Security

1 2 3 4 5

Objective - Map out the journey of boarding and leaving the aircraft for all classes to identify where times lost.

Queue For Seats Sit in Seats Queue to leave Jet Bridge Security & Baggage

The longer this part of the process the longer the turn time of the aircraft is in the airport. Which causes losses for the airline across the fleet.

6 7 8 9 10

The Airlines

An improvement would benefit both stakeholders why hasn’t one been found?

Per aircraft If a 10 minute saving was made to the boarding process.

Potential saving across a fleet for an airline.

Per minute cost for an aircraft to sit idle in an airport when ready to take off.

£25 £250 £45million

Block Boarding

Most commonly used but is the slowest taking on average the most time to board.

Window to Aisle Random/ Flying Carpet

Used by American airlines and is faster to board than block boarding as less

obstruction.

Used by cheap airlines as people naturally avoid each other when grouped.

Types of boarding

Jet Bridge Gangway Steps Transfer Bus

Objective - To analyse the different methods of boarding from entering the aircraft and finding your seat.

The passengers are shielded from the elements but funnelled into a choke point.

Sometimes combined with transfer bus this would work on BWB but exposed to

elements.

Could be a vehicle which attaches to the plane like a modern version of the ‘Plane

mate’

Alternative uses of space

Rather than creating communal spaces, why not divide groups of seats into small communities. If this aircraft is going to be extended long haul then sleep will be a large part of the journey. Could this

break up the wide open space into a more intimate grouping?

Pod hotels in Japan are a current trend.

Objective - Create a visual database of the ways in which a space can be divided to create illusion of community or isolation