THE NEW-GENERATION GAME
When Boeing launched the B787, it called it the Dreamliner. While this was partly marketing, it was also a reflection of what it hoped the aircraft would represent for flyers based on the research it had conducted over many years.
As was explained to me at the manufacturer’s factory in Seattle in 2009, Boeing knew that regular flyers preferred some aircraft to others for lots of reasons – namely comfort, on-board technology and perceived safety. So the trick was to find out the sort of things that flyers valued, and then design an aircraft that could supply them.
Kent Craver, regional director of passenger satisfaction and revenue marketing at Boeing at the time, told me: “The irony was that when we held focus groups of passengers, we found out that most people did not look forward to the flying experience. As a company, that was an acute challenge – imagine making something that your customers did not enjoy using.”
From that came a desire to help passengers rediscover their love of flying, so windows were made 30 per cent bigger than those on the B777 – allowing people to see much more, which begins the process of reconnecting them to the physical act of flying, as well as enabling those in the centre of the aircraft to see the horizon.
There was also a reduction in ca cabin altitude. On all commercial aircraft aircraft, a balance is struck between offering a breathable atmosphere (something that most travellers would say is q quite important), and not is over-pressurising the plane (lowering altitude), which is expensive and stresses the fuselage. For decades, the average altitude on board ha has been kept at 8,000 feet feet. After research at Oklahoma Sta State University, Boeing found that most of the lowlevel effects of altitude sick sickness, such as headaches, nausea and fatigue, dissipated below 6,000 feet. Hence, the aircraft is now pressured to 6,000 feet, something that the composite structure allows. When combined with the slightly higher humidity it also allows for, Boeing thinks travellers will see the benefit benefits.
The first customer for the B787 was ANA in 2011. Since then, the aircraft has been commercially flown in two models, the B787-8 and -9. It was joined in 2013 by the A350 XWB, Airbus’ answer to the Dreamliner, which employs a new airconditioning system that splits the cabin into multiple zones, providing fresher air and better temperature control.