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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0110.PDF
110 FLIGHT, 22 January 196( INTERIOR INDUSTRY • PART2.. TRANSPORT INTERIORS The Art and Engineering of Furnishing an Airliner BY MOLLY NEAL, BSc. OIC, AFRAeS British European Airways' Elizabethans, soon after the war, were the first British aircraft in which appearance and engineering design were co-ordinated from the beginning IN their impact upon the passenger's senses many otherwiseexcellent airliners fall woefully short of what they couldachieve. The average passenger knows nothing of fatigue life, or the unscheduled-removal rate of a powerplant; but heor she is intimately concerned with the impression created by the passenger cabin as a whole. From the psychological impact ofthe colour schemes down to the minutest detail, such as a creaking seat squab or stiff ashtray mechanism, the design and engineeringof the portions of the aeroplane which most concern the passenger are those which are most remembered when the passenger hasto travel again. In the past, cabin furnishing has often not been considered untilfunctional hull engineering has been irrevocably settled. This can give rise to ugly proportions, difficult lighting problems, andeven to structural protuberances which are not only embarrassing to the interior designer but are also bad from the maintenanceviewpoint, being excellent dirt-catchers. Quite a lot can be done to make such an interior reasonably attractive; but, to achieve themost satisfactory solution, the design consultant should be called in right at the start of the project. He can then advise on the designof doorways and bulkheads, hat racks, lighting fixtures, cloakroom fitments, the stowage of emergency equipment, and so on. He canoften, without penalty, eliminate unshapely excrescences, and the appearance of the interior will then evolve as a coherent entityinstead of a piecemeal compromise. One of the first to appreciate that interior design must beintegrated with engineering was British European Airways' chief development engineer, R. C. Morgan. In 1946 he enlisted theservices of industrial designer Kit Nicholson to work with BEA's passenger and freight equipment development section, and afterMr Nicholson's untimely death he brought in James Gardner, OBE, as design consultant. The first interior to be tackled as a jointeffort by Mr Morgan's engineers, Mr Gardner, and the manu- facturer's designers was the Airspeed Ambassador (Elizabethan).They set out to emphasize width, by the use of rectangular roof panels and long panels along the upper sidewalk; and, to destroyany "tube" effect, several partial bulkheads were introduced. The resulting effect was pleasingly spacious and was successful ingiving passengers an impression of roominess—to the extent that they have commented favourably on the wider seats installed inthe Elizabethans, as compared with those in the Viscount 701 (in fact, the seat width was the same in both aircraft). When theElizabethans were ordered, BEA abandoned the Viscount, so that the latter had reached a more advanced state of engineering by thetime the airline's team got to grips with it again. Consequently the V.701 is not fundamentally styled as was the Elizabethan, andas are its successors. Other British airlines and constructors are now following BEA'slead. Gaby Schreiber, the consultant called in by BO AC in 1957 to style the Comet 4 and their other main-line fleets, is now work-ing on the corporation's behalf in co-operation with Vickers- Armstrongs (Aircraft) on the architecture and decor of the VC10.Vickers themselves have for several years made use of an inter- national industrial design consultancy organization, Charles ButlerAssociates Ltd. Meanwhile, A. V. Roe & Co have initiated a trend new to the aircraft industry in this country by employingtheir own interior design engineer, Mr Donald Diamond, who has from the start co-operated with the functional design teamin engineering the whole interior of the Avro 748. Good interior design—it has been said by one industrial designer—is "nine-tenths engineering and one-tenth art." The airliner is a public transport vehicle and a working mechanism. To minimizemaintenance time there must be easy access to control runs, wiring and pipelines. All removable panels must be so made and securedthat they can withstand repeated handling without getting tatty. Seat attachments, passenger-service panels (on which are groupedindividual cold-air vents, lighting and steward-call buttons), cabin partitions and even the entire galley and toilet units must bereadily movable to give the operator the essential flexibility in layout. All materials must be flameproof, unaffected by condensation,able to withstand wear and tear, and be easily cleaned, while wall trims have to be considered in conjunction with heating, insulationand soundproofing. One of the axioms of satisfactory industrial design is that every detail, down to the notice on the lavatory door,should be included in the overall scheme. (The ashtray, for example, is no easy problem; it must be made to close, and beeasy to empty and clean.) Every item in the passengers' cognisance must fulfil its design function efficiently, be understood by thepassenger (it is no use providing a slot for used razor blades if the passenger concludes it to be some sort of penny-in-the-slotarrangement), and in the process must look attractive and an integral part of the aircraft. Thus the interior designer, as well as being an artist and acraftsman, must have a good understanding of the anatomy of the vehicle and of its operational problems. He must know howmaterials stand up to service conditions, and must be conversant with development in new fabrics, furnishings and equipment (infact he will probably be the initiator of many such developments). He will have to spend many hours in the air to ensure that hisdecorative schemes are effective in the very different lighting conditions experienced at high altitude, and that they are suitablefor the climatic variations encountered on all likely routes. He will also want to study the reactions of average passengers:whether they have trouble in locating artfully concealed ashtrays, whether they are comfortable or restless, how they react todifferent colours, whether the lush Lurex-trimmed seat upholstery is detrimental to the ladies' nylons, and so on. Lighting is a very important part of successful interior desi<3)>and one which can be satisfactorily solved only by close co-opca- tion with the manufacturer's engineering team. As aircraft powersupplies have stepped up, it has become possible for the desig '&
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