TECHNOLOGY FEATURE I INTERIORS
the company in its various guises has always been renowned for innovation and has been involved in many ‘firsts’ in the airline seating business. “We thought the Aircraft Interiors show would be an ideal platform on which to pose in a sense, a radical question and suggest something that might offer a unique and very different flight experience for passengers,” he begins. “For example, does it reflect social changes on how they might want to spend their time on board? Gaming has become incredibly popular and there are many passengers who may prefer spending time gaming during a long-haul flight as opposed to watching a film, eating or sleeping – particularly during daylight hours. “We saw an opportunity to really push the industry and see whether there are different and innovative approaches we can adopt, i.e. would this kind of seat be viable and could it be considered a possibility? Indeed, are there passengers that might say: ‘great, I would love to spend a long flight enjoying the latest gaming experiences’.” Lovell points to the fact that with so many dynamic business
passengers that totally rely on personal electronic devices, maybe the opportunity to have something dedicated on a flight might appeal to certain groups of people that think it’s a great way to pass the time. Lovell went on to discuss details about the industry appetite and feedback Contour received from visitors during the show. “It was quite striking the amount of people Not for Wimps
drew to the stand,” he reveals. “There was a huge amount of interest from all sorts of areas – not just in aerospace, which in a way was what we were trying to achieve: to get a feeling from people. From Contour’s perspective it demonstrated certain aspects and posed the kinds of questions that people probably weren’t really thinking about before. We’re challenging the aviation industry to show what you can do – if you need to do it. 20 years ago we didn’t have flat beds in aircraft; now they are everywhere.” Factorydesign responded to Contour’s
broad brief to create something different by taking an unconventional approach to pitching for the work. Rather than supplying sketches, Factorydesign simply wrote a one-page letter explaining its thinking. Contour decided that Factorydesign would be the company most likely to push the boundaries furthest. “We work with many design houses, as
well as working directly with the airline OEMs that employ them,” continues Lovell. “On this occasion we decided to partner with Factorydesign, as we had worked with them previously on real aircraft interior projects. We reviewed
Not for Wimps: The NFW concept seat is said to give passengers a unique and entertaining in-flight gaming experience
a range of ideas that we had discussed and decided that the NFW seat would garner the most impact by being a differentiator to conventional seating. The NFW seat was selected because it had the features of a gaming device combined with a large display.” In terms of the kinds of manufacturing processes and
materials employed to achieve the NFW’s radical appearance, Lovell says that the concept seat was built under ‘model shop’ pre-production conditions. “The NFW seat wasn’t rigidly designed against aviation specifications because it was purely a mock-up prototype,” he confirms. “Everything used to construct it is readily available today, which was a sensible basis for the idea. We didn’t want to attempt anything crazy as it still needed the ability to be made in production units if necessary. We used composite materials and they were the key to attaining the desired shape and aesthetics. However, we use them in our other seating products, so we are building on the technology that we already use.” So will anyone sit up and take notice of
the NFW concept seat or will it always remain a ‘one-off? I ask Lovell whether he received any tangible enquiries during show to take the NFW concept forward and bring it to market: “No, not as it stands, and I don’t think we’ve pretended that it can be put it in an aircraft straight away – it will
Sitting proud: The NFW seat turned a few heads during this year’s Aircraft Interiors Expo
need further developments,” he concludes. ❙
www.contour.aero
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