Award Encourages New Designs for Inside Airplanes
The Crystal Cabin Award encourages companies to develop new products and designs for airplane cabins. Begun in 2007, 105 ideas from 21 different countries are on this year's shortlist, with many focusing on ways to make flying easier and more comfortable for travelers.
Aircraft Innovations GmbH has designed a seat that can be placed within a regular seat and inflated to make it easy for babies and young children to sit or sleep. It weighs 1 kilogram and can be inflated in less than 1 minute.
Adient Aerospace has designed a seat extension that folds out from the wall in front of the first row of seats, making the row into a small bed that a family could share.
Hamburg's Heinkel Group has a design for seats that can be turned around after the plane takes off, so passengers traveling together can face one another.
Collins Aerospace also has a seat for flight attendants that can stretch out so that they can almost lie down on breaks.
Students at the University of Cincinnati have suggested taking out the middle row of seats in business class and replacing them with seats placed sideways along a long table with space for computers, like in an airport cafe or fast food restaurant.
Irish designer Ciara Crawford has also designed a wheelchair that can fit over the airplane seat, allowing people to use the same wheelchair from check-in to arrival. The design already won a European Product Design Award in 2019.
Winners of the Crystal Cabin Award will be announced at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Germany, in March 2020.
