Interior Design

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In the dreams of flying, King Rama of India, the Queen of Shaba and the heroes Ikaros and Dedalos did not need any designer… In our days, when flying is the only way of crossing continents and oceans regularly, sophisticated design of the interiors facilitates travel. And famous Raymond Loewy styled the interior of U.S. President’s B.707. Interior design became a symbol of modern life-style.

Interior design of the past – that meant the luxury of the Do-X flying boat of 1929 with saloons and Turkish carpets, the Pan American “Clipper” 314 with berths for just 40 passengers or the twin-deck Short Solent flying boat for only 34 passengers, equipped with a lounge, restaurant and bar. But also modern interior design appeared already in the pre-war years. The “Bauhaus”-style seats of KLM’s Fokkers were only an attempt, but the DC-3 set the standard for future and with the Junkers Ju 90 new cabin layout schemes were tried.


BAC One-Eleven of Bavaria, 1977 (WS)

Tupolev Tu-134, Interflug, exhibition 1995 (WS)

Fokker 100, Hapag-Lloyd Express, 2006 (WS)

DC-10 of Lufthansa, New York flight 1987 (WS)


Boeing and Teague
After WWII, the interiors of the Constellation and the Super Constellation, styled by Raymond Loewy and Henry Dreyfuss, and smiling stewardesses showed “The American way of life”. Boeing, the undisputed market leader during the first decades of the jet age, had started its collaboration with Walter Dorwin Teage Associates (WDTA) already in 1946, when WDTA chief designer Frank del Guidice was ordered to create the cabin layout for the twin-deck Stratocruiser. Epoch-making was Boeing’s new closely spaced cabin windows layout with a view from every seat even in a high-density configuration, introduced with the 707. The interior design of latecomer Convair 880 is contributed to Harley Earl and exaggerated ambitions of Howard Hughes were assumed (by Wolfgang Borgmann: Das goldene Zeitalter des Luftverkehrs) being a reason for its delay. With the 747’s cabin design, Teage Associates created the wide-body look, being successful for decades. Fanciful interior design by Lantal was reported for early 747s. Fun society features such as the “Thomas Cook Lounge” with a wooden steering-wheel aboard Qantas’ 747s were ridiculous and short-lived. Nostalgia does not harmonize with aircraft. Also the big galley, placed in the forward cabin of some 747s at the expense of window seats, was accepted only by a few companies, e.g. KLM. The 1st class lounge on the 747 upper deck of certain airlines was nice, but uneconomic.


Boeing 747, upper deck lounge (courtesy Lufthansa-Archiv)

Boeing 747-400, Thai Airways 2003 (WS)


Supersonic
Teage Associates with del Guidice designed also the cabin layout for the never-built supersonic Boeing 2707. The long sleek hull was divided up by wardrobes, and the tiny windows got a special design in order to avoid claustrophobia. With a partial 2+3+2 seat layout, the 2707 would have been a twin-aisle plane. Raymond Loewy made the preliminary proposal for the interior design of the Concorde. He had styled already the interiors of the Air Force One for John F. Kennedy. After the plane had landed in Moscow, Loewy was asked to design the interior of the supersonic Tu-144, but he couldn’t, on account of his Concorde engagement. Nevertheless the American style was adopted by the Russian industry, too, and the wooden window-frames aboard the Tu-144 were abandoned. Much later the Concorde interiors were restyled by Sir Terence Conran and Andree Putnam in a cozy, more conservative way.

MD, Lockheed, Airbus
At the end of the 60s the architects “Cambridge 7” produced advanced design studies for the interior shell of the DC-10. TWA TriStars appeared with “two-by-two” seating in the middle row. Europe had abandoned the somewhat conservative style of the first Comet and Caravelle cabins. Airbus demonstrated from the beginning a modern style, something like a “Bauhaus” heritage, more “cool” than early American designs. Some airlines engaged consulting companies with glamorous names to design everything, from textiles to cutlery. Alitalia chose for interior design the motorcar design guru Giugiaro. And while interiors of the first TriStars and A300s were spacious and friendly, newer wide-body cabins became spoiled by the huge central overhead bins, however necessary.


Lockheed TriStar, Air Canada 1985 (WS)

Airbus A300, Alitalia 1993 (WS)

Boeing 747-200, Garuda 1994 (Anton Soelch)

Boeing 767, LAN Chile 2010 (WS)


Sleeping…
During decades, seating configurations always were criticized by naggers. In 1999 a study found out that passengers preferred the A340 layout against the Boeing 777, which some airlines still had ordered with the horrible 5-abreast seating in the middle row. For 1st class passengers of the DC-8, SAS had announced: “The berths are so comfortable… that sleeping aboard this new plane is like floating through air”. With the shortened traveling time of the jets, this luxury was not necessary. In 1979 Singapore Airlines introduced 1st class sleeping cabins on the 747’s upper deck, for some time Japan Airlines offered berths and a bar on the top floor, but around 1990 Philippine Airline’s 747s were the only planes with 1st class “Skybeds” on the upper deck. Only when the Munich philharmonic orchestra hired a Lufthansa 747 for a Japan tour, Lufthansa equipped it with a sleeping cabin for celebrated 80 years old maestro Sergiu Celibidache. Even more famous was Pope Paul’s first flight abroad to Mexico in 1979: Alitalia improvised the 1st class cabin of a DC-10 completely for the Holy Father and his staff.

Much later the idea of sleeping accommodation was realized on a larger scale. In the late 90s British Airways was reported being the first to upgrade business class with reclining pod-type “flat bed” seats, the new common standard for long-haul flights. Singapore Airlines introduced with their B.777-300ER the “fully flat bed” with “direct aisle access” for every business class seat. KLM presented in 2013 its World Business Class by designer Hella Jongerius with new full-flat seats. For 1st class, Emirates Airline invented in 2004 the term “privacy suites”. Then other airlines introduced it even in the business class. Realistic was the introduction of a new class for a premium economy market, e.g. the “Pacific Premium Economy Class” of Air New Zealand or the “Premium Voyageur” class of Air France. After a former French minister nagged on the food, the boss announced ameliorated business class flatbed seats for the B.777, reducing the capacity by 9 percent (according to Jens Flottau, SZ, Feb8, 2014) – and also the yield?


Airbus A340 business class, Iberia 2006 (WS)

Airbus A380, first-class (courtesy Singapore Airlines, 2011)


Airbus A380
“The plane has nearly 50% more floor area than Boeing Co.’s biggest 747 jumbo jet… But the A380 can carry only about 35% more passengers than a 747, which means each person gets more space on average” wrote the Wall Street Journal (Sep25, 2008). The report continued: “Singapore Airlines’ (first class) ‘Sky Suites’ are so big they include both a seat and a bed, appointed with sheets and dishware designed by French fashion house Givenchy”. The 12 fully enclosed “SIA Suite” cabins on the main deck incorporate a sliding door for privacy, created by French yachting designer Jean-Jaques Coste. The 60 business class flat-bed seats are arranged in a 1-2-1 configuration. The 399 economy class seats are distributed on the main and upper deck. In 2014 Etihad presented its A380 interior design, on the forward upper deck equipped with a luxury cabin, containing a bedroom and a shower bath. An exclusive butler is serving ‘The Residence by Etihad’, whereupon Emirates announced upgrading its First Class.

Concerning 1st class, “Qantas deliberately eschewed a door because passenger surveys indicated it felt claustrophobic, says designer Mr. Newson”, according to the Wall Street Journal. Paris-based Marc Newson ameliorated also Qantas’ economy class with widened seats and a snack bar. Several airlines added a shower bath for 1st class. For a third cabin on the A380’s cargo deck below, EADS Aircabin designers had envisioned everything from a gym to a casino, from a McDonald’s to a haute cuisine restaurant, until Airbus brought them back into line. The deck below is used for cargo and for crew cabins on ultra-long distance flights. Then a 10-abreast economy class main deck cabin, for most airlines also 1st class on the main deck and a mix of business and economy class upstairs was offered. During the unveiling ceremony only Sir Richard Branson had talked of offering gyms, casinos and double beds, but he postponed Virgin’s order. Air France deputy CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon was quoted: “Most of the plane will be filled with seats”. That’s logic and the first A380 was laid out for 9 “La Premiere” places on the main deck, 80 “Affaires” and 38 “Premium Voyageur” seats on the upper deck and 389 “Voyageur” seats on both decks. Six bars were offered, also to the “Voyageur”, and - the interior of the A380 is less noisy than other planes. Emirates’ announcement of a 3+5+3 layout for some planes however was not welcomed by the trade press.


Airbus A380, Emirates Airline, 2015 (WS)

Boeing 787-8 (ANA, Boeing via Wikimedia)


Dreamliner
When a renowned airline had announced its A340-500 cabin equipment with no less than 200 entertainment options, New York airline analyst Robert Mann said that the key would be to “divert passengers’ attention from the fact that they’re in a plane”.
Disappointed passengers on a pre-booked “window seat” without window really may forget that they are flying.

With Boeing’s 7E7 concept, a philosophy in cabin architecture completely different from some windowless HST or BWB proposals was anticipated. Boeing director of passenger revenue development Klaus Brauer presented it and Flight Intl (Nov18, 2003) commented: “Sitting inside the 7E7 cabin mockup, which Boeing is developing in partnership with its traditional interior specialist Teague, Brauer gestures to the radically larger windows and says: ‘Flying is special but we, as an industry, have almost succeeded in killing it off in a lot of people….”. Many passengers always pull down the window blinds during daylight and even some rigorous airlines force passengers to do so – and nobody has any view. In place of window shades, Boeing started to adjust the transparency of the glazing by electronic dimmable windows, developed also by Airbus. But would some airlines then close down every view? Or would a bad neighbor darken the windows? “In this case it is recommendable to visit the onboard toilet, for it has a window,” joked the well-known analyst Jens Flottau in Sueddeutsche Zeitung. With the 7E7 concept, Boeing intended to seat more passengers close to the windows and not in five-abreast middle rows. The Flight International report continued: “Another surprise is the 3-2-3 economy seating layout option. “We are getting a good reaction to the wider outboard and narrower centre section”, said Brauer. Boeing patented the layout. But worldwide the sad 2+4+2 with the ‘underdog’ center seemed to remain standard.

Airbus A350XWB
Boeing’s concept “Flying is special” worked: After it was published, Airbus announced for the A350 windows 8% larger than those of the A330/A340 and A380. When the concept had changed to ‘XWB’, the hull was widened in comparison to the A300-to-A340 series, enabling a 3+3+3 seat configuration. In 2005 Airbus has enlisted the help of BMW’s design team, envisioning a “virtual sky” mood lighting and a lightened dome in the entrance area, adjacent to a bar for all passengers. At least as important is the possibility of a quick change in configuration between economy and premium class.

Hate Flying?
Leading airlines make seat reservations for a window seat not only in the business class, but also for economy fares, otherwise they are second-ranking. Reserving seats at an extra fare was demonstrated by Aeroflot, British Airways and more and more by other standard carriers – good for getting the desired window-seat. On short-to-medium haul flights people are looking out of the window, seeing the Alps, the Andes or Pacific islands. Even more on long-distance flights aboard American, European, Russian or New Zealand planes we enjoyed the view on Greenland, Siberia, the Rockies, the Sahara, the South Pacific. A friendly United stewardess, admiring Greenland, said that not every day this nice route is chosen. But certain other airlines are forcing the passengers to pull down the window blinds during daylight-hours and nothing can be seen except movies, an experience we had with some exotic airlines, but even with Alitalia on the second day of an Australia flight. On a flight with Air China we got the order to close the blinds during night and during an entire daylight flight in 2017 (and we did not obey the order and we enjoyed to see the snowy mountains of Mongolia and Siberia). Airlines preventing window view should be listed by Internet as a warning. On a Qatar daylight-flight from Doha to Cape Town almost all the passengers obeyed the order to close the blinds and preferred to sleep or to ‘enjoy’ movies instead of admiring the East Coast of Africa, though the nice stewardesses finally allowed it.

A frequent-flyer told stories of crossing Arabian airspace, all the blinds tightly closed, on military reasons, or not? In 1974, during the Cyprus war, the author was lucky: Boarding at Athens for Tel Aviv he was ordered to pack the cameras into the suit-case, but aboard the TWA 707, coming from New York, the blinds were open and everybody could have a lookout for warships. During Soviet time, passengers of East-German Interflug had strict order to close the window blinds when the top-secret Baikonur missile region was crossed during daylight hours due to late-running. Possibly still now some airlines with super super super service are targeting passengers who don’t like to look out of the window, who prefer movies and whose life may consist of consuming entertainment. Must people who love to see our planet Earth take motorcar or cruise ship, while air traffic should be confined to people who – hate flying?


Flying over the North Atlantic (WS)