For B/E Aerospace’s Mike Baughan president and COO, integration is a key industry theme this year, which is evident throughout the show. He says “Airlines are developing several new classes, such as premium economy. Business class generally now has lie flat seats and is a much more upmarket product than it used to be.”
According to Baughan passengers now expect seat movement, IFE, and even lighting. And with an order book of over $2bn for the next year, the interiors manufacturer is well positioned to make industry forecasts.
The OEM has brought several seating concepts to Hamburg, including a variation of the new United Airlines business class cabin configuration. B/E will outfit the international wide-body cabins on the carrier’s Boeing 767, 777 and 747 fleets. The seat features forward and aft facing seats with a centred monument, housing an ottoman, which extends the bed-length to 193 cm (6 feet 4 inches) and a (38 cm) 15 inch video screen.
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| Mike Baughan: bullish about industry prospects |
The design is typical of how the market is developing. “When United moved out of Chapter 11, one if its key strategies was to develop a superior long haul business cabin, so it leapfrogged straight into a lie flat horizontal seat,” Baughan says.
And because of increasing competition from the private aviation sector, first class concepts are now completely differentiated, frequently with high end seating pods or even suites. B/E has been at the forefront of design in the sector and has just won a 2008 Crystal Cabin award for its flagship first class sky suite concept. Thanks to rising fuel costs, another request is for weight savings, so B/E is also demonstrating its new Spectrum coach class product at the show, which weighs in at under 33.11 kilos (73 pounds) for a triple.
Baughan is bullish about future prospects. : “We have a wide portfolio of products, from our complex seats and inserts to our new Pulse oxygen system, which is the baseline on the A350 XWB, and we have the capability to integrate our platforms, saving airlines time and money by using a single supplier,” he says.
More news, pictures and videos from Aircraft interiors EXPO Hamburg 2008....
Source: Flight Daily News
