Recently in Cabin Interiors Category

I grew up in an Irish Catholic home, where the word "hell" wasn't so much a curse word as it was a potential destination for my immortal soul.

And so, when an executive from Chinese carrier Spring, during a recent presentation at the World Low Cost Airlines Congress in Barcelona, misidentified me as a Chicago-based CEO and misquoted me as saying that stand-up seats would be "an interesting trip to hell", I couldn't help but chuckle.

Lord knows all trips to hell are interesting. I'm told that the problem arises when you actually get there.

But I digress. My friend over at Aviation Week, Andy Compart, was in the audience when the Spring executive showed the following slide.



Compart, who was kind enough to forward the slide along, says:

I didn't even realize until I got a copy of the presentation how badly they butchered your quote -- which is odd, since the original quote already was in English! Someone must have translated it to Chinese and then back into English. The botched version actually slams the airline's proposal.

But should the airline's proposal be slammed? Does Spring's idea for a standing-room only configuration look like a hell of a good one? Or a hellish ride? Or will passengers feel like hell when they reach their destination?

See for yourself. Compart has a raft of amazing pictures to show you in his blog: "Standing-Room Only Seats - The Photos."

Bombardier Commercial Aircraft vice-president marketing Philippe Poutissou shows us the big bags that will fit in the CSeries' big overhead bins.

Two big thumbs up!

Key quote:

"This airplane has been designed with a huge amount of onboard stowage."

With all the calm, cool, collected reserve you'd expect from a top-notch design firm, Neutral, which creates all the branding for Lufthansa's in-flight entertainment (IFE) systems, has made it known that it is ready to add to its roster of customers.

Managers at the London-based firm, who admit to being "obsessed with integrated design", sat down with me at the recent World Airline Entertainment Association (WAEA) conference to tell me about Neutral and its new expansion plan.

"After eight years with Lufthansa, we now feel we are advanced enough to expand our business and share it with other clients," said Neutral's Tapio Snellman.

A quick scan of Neutral's body of work for Lufthansa (see below) will tell you just how important the firm has been to the Star Alliance member.

In addition to creating the graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for the Rockwell Collins eTes and Panasonic eX2 IFE systems on Lufthansa's aircraft, Neutral rebranded the German carrier's 'Magazine OnAir' video programme.

Here's the video:
 
 

And here's the 3D animation that Neutral created to introduce passengers to Lufthansa's new business class environment:



If you're an airline that wants to take its IFE system to the next level, give this firm a call.

Its name is, after all, Neutral.

Neutral founded in 1999, IFE work since 2001
 
Work with Lufthansa includes:
2002 R&D GUI development
2003-2009 Interactive content with monthly updates: Fleet, routes, Lufthansa history, Aviation Group, Miles&More infos
2003 Rebranding of 'Magazine OnAir' video program, establishing of screen design identity for Lufthansa IFE system
2004 Opening sequences for 6 specialised music programmes, updated monthly
2005-2006  Numerous opening sequences and interstitials for the entire IFE system
2004-2009 Production of music tracks following aural corporate identity for incorporation into IFE
2007 eTes GUI for First and Economy Class (including fully functional demos)
2007 eX2 GUI for First, Business and Economy Class (including fully functional demos in German, English, Arabic and Chinese)
2008 Safety videos (3D animation) for 5 aircraft types, in 8 languages each
2009 Flyrobic well-being onboard video (3D animation) in 6 languages
2009 R&D Collaboration with Rockwell Collins on future eTes GUI (ohhh, very  interesting, says I.)
 
Other airline clients include: Angolan Airlines, Finnair and Air New Zealand.

Some fab IFEC stuff is coming out of NBAA right now.

Check out Flightglobal's special NBAA landing page for all the latest news, blogs and video from the show (IFEC-specific news is on Flightglobal's dedicated IFEC channel). This video from the show caught my eye. Yeah, it rocks.

One doesn't normally see in-flight entertainment (IFE) offered on regional jets (depending on your definition of a regional jet, of course).

But Inflight Canada, which showed us a pretty incredible in-seat power installation at the WAEA show last week, has created a drop-down solution - that uses projector technology!!! - for regionals that is "less weight and easy to install" and, oh yes, it can be "installed on an overnight".

Sweeeeeeeeeeet!

The seemingly crazy 'sideways seating' idea tabled by Design Q - and reported by yours truly first (yes, even before FOX and countless other news entities) - is moving quickly forward with possible tests taking place in December.

Oh yes, and it has a name - MAXCABIN.

I'll bet the Asian carriers and Ryanair's Michael O'Leary will be all ears. But isn't O'Leary all ears anyways? Ahem.

Check out Design Q's brand new newsletter, where I snagged the above snippet. As you can see, the firm will be doing lots of other cool stuff at next week's NBAA convention in Orlando.

Inflight Canada is best known for its innovative iCACHE underfloor IFE installation system, which makes everything nice and neat and less complicated, and which has attracted customers like Air Canada and Virgin America.

But Inflight Canada is not a 'one trick pony' by any stretch. Indeed, the company showcased two rather amazing products at this week's World Airline Entertainment Association (WAEA) conference and exhibition.

The first, captured on video below, is a system that allows you to bring in-seat power to aircraft in an overnight install without re-certifying the seat!

Like iCACHE, the in-seat power installation is nice, neat and less complicated (and much less costly than ripping the plane apart).

To all you carriers bringing in-flight connectivity to passengers - but don't have in-seat power installed on your aircraft - here's your answer.