The Boeing 787 Dreamliner has some fascinating new uses for technology, but the simple ability of cattle-class travellers to get laptop power isn't yet a done deal.
Boeing's 787 Dreamliner has some fascinating new uses for technology, but the ability of cattle-class travellers to get laptop power still remains in the hands of individual airlines.
For the much-discussed and somewhat delayed Dreamliner, Boeing has restricted the ability of airlines to customise the seating in the economy cabin, allowing them to choose from a range of different seat designs but not offering total freedom for airlines to install whatever seat they like.
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Annoyingly for PC-toting travellers on a budget, however, the choice of whether to offer in-seat power is one of the few customisations that remain.
"The option is there for all of them," said Kent Craver (don't say it too quickly), regional director for passenger satisfaction and revenue for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, during a press conference at the Business Travel Show in London.
"For in-seat power, airlines can choose how they want that installed. It's everything from nothing up to a full on-demand entertainment system with in-seat power. The aircraft was designed to give our airline customers as much flexibility as they need to run their business."
No design restraints apply to the pricier business and first-class options, where in-seat power is much more likely.
"For the premium cabins, airlines differ so greatly in what their products are," Craver said. "Most of them will be bringing on their own proprietary front cabin products."
One welcome change in the Dreamliner is in the baggage within the cabin, a frequent cause of turf wars between boarding passengers carrying too many portable electronic devices and their associated chargers. "There was a lot of unusable space in overhead bins. [For the Dreamliner], we actually designed the bins around bags," Craven said. The bins have been designed to fit the largest permitted bag allowed on any service operated by Boeing's current airline customers.
While that represents an actual increase in space, many of the Dreamliner's design features, such as electrically dimmable windows, a sky blue ceiling and a widened entrance archway, are designed to increase the perception of space rather than offering more room.
"If it feels spacious, it is spacious," Craver said. "We get asked all the time how high the arch is. In our opinion it doesn't matter."
In a similar vein, development research for the plane revealed that the perceived width of a seat at eye level when sitting down had more impact on passenger comfort than actual seat width or placement within the cabin. "it's a visual thing much more than it is a physical width thing," Craver said.
Boeing has orders for 857 Dreamliners from 56 airlines, including Qantas and Jetstar. Supply chain problems have delayed its introduction, but the company hopes to have its first Dreamliner in flight by mid-year, with shipment to airlines in early 2009.