Avio Interiors new ESP seats – Economy Slim Platform – were created “not by a designer, but by the specifications”. And, adds engineering advisor Gaetano Perugini, pictured, the result satisfies all eight standards in the Boeing Comfort Guidelines while exceeding the CAA’s demanding CAP 747 standards for passenger space in a 28in pitch installation.
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By the look of the Jackson Pollack-inspired leather covers, designers clearly had some input to the ESP project as presented at the show but, says Perugini, the seat was about 80% determined by feeding the Boeing and CAA specifications for a 95th percentile male – about 1.88m tall – into the computer-aided design software.
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He adds that the obvious thinness of the seats is only part of the reason for their space-saving characteristics, which provide better passenger accommodation than rivals fitted at 29in or even, in some cases, 31in pitches. The backs, for example, may look flat “but are very carefully shaped”.
Separately, Avio is showing an “advanced” engineering concept for a business class seat it calls Skywave, that is being readied for launch after the summer. The “cradle” style seat, says Perugini, will provide all of the electrically-adjustable features expected in business class in a sleek package.
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Another advance on display was the Skyrider standing seat. This space-saving idea is an improvement on the version Avio showed at last year’s show, doing away with the overhead fixing to rely exclusively on a standard floor mounting.
For more news, pictures and analysis from AIX 2019, visit our dedicated event page
Source: Flight Daily News
