Features

Flight of the future

27 Apr 2009 by Sara Turner

The new B787 Dreamliner aims to ‘reconnect passengers with the experience of flying’. Tom Otley had a sneak preview at Boeing’s Seattle HQ.

Now that Singapore Airlines, Emirates and Qantas are operating flights on the Airbus A380, with other carriers set to follow suit this year, the most eagerly awaited aircraft is the Boeing 787, nicknamed the Dreamliner.

As with the A380, the production process has been subject to several delays – most recently because of a strike at Boeing’s Seattle headquarters at the end of last year – but it now looks as if the inaugural customer for the aircraft, Japan’s ANA, will receive it in the first half of next year. During a recent visit to Seattle for the delivery flight to Doha of Qatar Airways’ first B777-200LR aircraft, Boeing revealed the thinking behind the 787 and the benefits it hopes the aircraft will offer business travellers.

The idea for the Dreamliner started in around 2000 with Boeing beginning development on a concept aircraft called the Sonic Cruiser. The idea was that this would be a new, super-fast plane, capable of travelling at almost the speed of sound (about 750 mph – today’s long-haul aircraft typically travel at 600 mph). At these speeds, journey times would be significantly shortened. What Boeing discovered, however, was that post-September 11, 2001, and in the face of rising fuel costs, airlines were more interested in efficiency.

Boeing knew that regular flyers – in other words, business travellers – preferred some aircraft to others for a number of reasons, such as comfort, onboard technology and perceived safety, so the trick was to find out the things they valued and design an aircraft that could supply them. In this way, all things being equal, business travellers would choose the airline that had this aircraft on a particular route, and the airline would see an increase in its revenue.

Kent Craver, regional director of passenger satisfaction and revenue marketing at Boeing, says: “The irony was that when we held focus groups of passengers, we found out that most people did not look forward to the flying experience. As a company that was an acute challenge – imagine making something that your customers did not enjoy using.”

Yet from those same focus groups, and from the information gathered by psychologists and cultural anthropologists such as Blake Emery and Clotaire Rapaille, Boeing discovered a couple of interesting things. The first was that when people fly, they are bored. For the most part they are travelling because they have to, not because they want to. It seems obvious, but when compared with the experience of going to a sports game, it threw up some crucial points.

At a sports game, people sit for some time in narrow, hard seats laid out in a tight formation so that if they want to get up and move, several people are disturbed – yet they don’t mind putting up with this because they are engaged in an event that they have asked to take part in. The research also showed that irrespective of people’s culture, everyone had an inherent love of flying. However, that love has vanished. One of the reasons for this might be that people don’t really associate flying with the physical act of flying any more, they associate it with travel. For most people, travelling is a process that includes driving to the airport, checking in, going through security, finding the gate and so on, none of which is enjoyable.

As Craver says: “By the time people get to the aircraft they are already in the middle of the worst day of their lives.” That presents a problem for both aircraft manufacturers and airlines, since most of the frustrating experiences that happen to flyers occur on the ground.

He adds: “Our psychologist told us we should create a separation between what has gone before and the experience we were offering. One of the ways that can happen is with a welcome. It creates a psychological break from what has occurred previously and allows someone to look forward to an experience.”

So far, so good, but since airline staff are outnumbered by 50 to one, they would have little time to offer a personal welcome. Boeing saw it was the architecture of the aircraft that would have to perform this welcome. “The aim was to design an aircraft that reconnected people with the experience of flying,” Craver explains.

So how do you create this welcome? As the new cabin of the B787 shows, it is initially by increasing the overhead space as you step on to the aircraft. Typically, you enter via a long, claustrophobic airbridge tunnel before squeezing down a narrow aisle and into a seat by a small window. The B787 opens up the space above the seats with a domed ceiling and clever use of LED lighting, which in the example we were shown is blue and white to mimic the sky. It does create a welcoming feeling and also forms part of a very different interior from the ones we are familiar with.

Craver says: “It’s the same effect as in medieval cathedrals. When people go in, they often enter through a small vestibule that opens up to a giant roof and soaring spaces.”

The Dreamliner is being built in a new way, not least through the materials being used. It is constructed from composites (carbon-fibre reinforced plastics) rather than aluminium, which means it is stronger, lighter and quicker to build (in theory). As well as improving the exterior of the fuselage, Boeing has also made some modifications to the interior of the aircraft to take advantage of its superior strength.

The first thing the designers did was make the windows 65 per cent bigger than those on the B777, which are the largest windows in the sky at the moment. This allows people to see much more, which also helps to reconnect them to the physical act of flying, as well as allowing those seated in the centre of the wide-bodied aircraft to see the horizon.

The new windows allow for more intuitive control of light, with a dimmer switch rather than the lowering or raising of blinds, which often creates problems when some passengers disturb others on “night” flights when there is daylight outside.

“It means that even on a night flight you can create a night-time effect and yet still see outside,” Craver says. “The psychologist’s research reminded us of the importance of those childhood dreams of flying. Yet the interior of an aircraft has a domestic, cave-like colour palette, which nullifies the effect of being in the air. On the B787, there are up to 11 lighting scenes the airline can choose from, as well as the ability to choose the transition time. Boeing calls this the “sky interior” to distinguish it from mood lighting, which tends to saturate colour, Craver says.

Another improvement that will be welcomed by frequent travellers is a reduction in cabin altitude. On all commercial aircraft a balance is struck between offering a breathable atmosphere, something most travellers would say is important, and not over-pressurising the plane – lowering the altitude – which is expensive and causes stress to the fuselage.

For many decades, the average altitude on board has been kept at 8,000 feet, but after research at the University of Oklahoma, Boeing found most low-level effects of altitude sickness, such as headaches, nausea and fatigue, dissipated below 6,000 feet. The new aircraft is therefore pressurised at 6,000 feet, something the composite structure also allows. As this is combined with a slightly higher humidity, Boeing thinks travellers will see the benefits.

In addition, there are the obvious improvements such as large overhead lockers with easy-to-use latches that open whether pushed or pulled. In business class these have been removed from the centre of the aircraft to create more room.

The Dreamliner is also 15-20 per cent more fuel efficient than the B767, which should be good for the environment and has certainly attracted airlines – 879 orders have been made so far by 55 customers worldwide. Not bad considering the list price for the Dreamliner is anywhere between $161 million and $171.5 million.

As far as most business travellers are concerned, the Dreamliner is still a few years away. For now, they will probably be flying long-haul in either Boeing’s B747 jumbo or one of the B777 family. The B747 is currently being extended so that an extra 45 passengers can be accommodated in a typical three-class configuration, with the B747-800 coming into service some time in 2011 (Lufthansa has an order for 20 passenger versions).

The Boeing 777 family of aircraft, meanwhile, has enjoyed continual success and now consists of six different versions, five of which are passenger models. The aircraft’s popularity is proved simply by looking at British Airways’ fleet, which has 43 B777 aircraft and more on order, and Air France’s, which has more than 50. The B777 has room on board for between 301 and 368 passengers in a three-class configuration, and a range capability extending to over 9,000 nautical miles, enough for a route such as Doha to Houston non-stop.

The most popular choices are the B777-300ER (extended range) and the B777-200LR (longer range). The ER was introduced in April 2004, and with a range of 7,930 nautical miles and carrying 365 passengers, it was immediately popular with the airlines. The LR, which saw its first delivery in February 2006, carries 301 passengers and has a range of up to 9,420 nautical miles. It is currently the world’s longest-range commercial jetliner, capable of connecting virtually any two cities around the world.

About 35 per cent of the designs for the 777-300ER and 777-200LR planes were changed from the earlier 777 models – the wings were extended by two metres each by adding raked wing tips to improve aerodynamics and fuel efficiency. The wing tips also helped to reduce take-off field length, increase climb performance and reduce fuel burn.

The two aircraft also have seat-mile costs that are 18-20 per cent lower than the A340-500 and A340-600 models. For carriers such as Qatar, which received its second B777-200LR in February ready for its new Doha-Houston route, the choice is crucial, as shown by the fact that a strike at the Boeing factory delayed not only the delivery of the aircraft, but the introduction of the route.

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