RH: "Flexible Interiors Concept" for Airbus A380

From: Robert Ho (ho3@pacific.net.sg)
Subject: RH: "Flexible Interiors Concept" for Airbus A380
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Newsgroups: soc.culture.singapore
Date: 2004-10-04 22:40:24 PST

RH:

1. The Airbus A380 can carry up to 550 passengers, in the biggest
fuselage in aviation history. However, this capacious capacity may
mean that in some seasonal variations of low passenger bookings, or
sudden low passenger bookings due to say, a terrorist scare or another SARS scare, the plane may carry below capacity leading to waste of space and opportunity cost.

2. By employing a judo tactic, this waste of space may be converted
into a huge advantage. Introducing my Flexible Interiors Concept.

3. This concept is simply, to put the waste of empty seats to other
uses than seating passengers to give the remaining passengers more
benefits.

4. For example, rows of empty seats, or even whole sections,
depending on the number of empty seats, may be removed and replaced
with say, single or even double beds to offer passengers a true Hotel
Bed experience, at some extra cost, of course. Passengers can either
sign up for these Hotel Beds beforehand or on the spot after
inspecting the facilities.

5. While real beds will probably be the most desired service, other
possible variations can include Massage Cubicles with trained
masseurs.

6. Hotel Beds and Massage Cubicles can be quickly partitioned by
heavy curtains, etc, for light weight and quick installation. Hospital bed curtain systems are a guide to possibilities.

7. Other flexible interior ideas can include a Reading Room, Lounge,
Children's Playground, Video Game Arcade, Casino, even a small band or string quartet in attendance in a soundproofed Concert Chamber.

8. For those who fear deep vein thrombosis, there could be an
exercise or Gym area for light exercise. This could be very important
to reassure passengers they can combat DVT and thus fly safer. As
important commercially as Hotel Beds. There need not be many gym
equipment, just some light equipment but mostly space to stretch out
and relieve the cramped positions of sitting for hours in a plane
seat. A trained air steward/ess can be in part time attendance,
together with helpful videos and posters to suggest quick and useful
exercises. Thus, you literally fly safer on an Airbus A380.

9. This Flexible Interiors Concept also allows alternate rows of
seats to be removed to become instant premium seating with much more
leg space. Alternatively, only 1 or 2 rows in a section need be
removed and all the rest of the seats may be slid forward or backward
to produce more even extra leg space for all in the section. This
would involve slight modification to the current seats, which are
permanently bolted down. My idea would be to remove 1 or 2 rows and
the resulting space be distributed to all the rest simply by sliding
the remaining seats forward or backward, exactly like we slide our
front car seats to adjust to our preference. The difference is that
maybe, the passengers should not be able to slide their seats, this
adjustment of seats being done by the plane's mechanics ground staff
before the plane takes off.

10. For accurate weight calculations, which is important for safety,
all the possible configurations must be calculated beforehand. For
example, say, Row 1 may be removable and the entire Section A then
share the increased leg space. All this can be pre-configured and
pre-calculated beforehand. Or, say, a Gym Area with say, half a dozen
Walking Treadmills all bolted down in exactly calculated positions. Or a Casino with pre-calculated parts all known to the last kilogram,
etc.

11. There will need to be a new system of bolting down the seats and
any change to interiors, say, the installation of Hotel Beds. A new
system of bolts and under-floor bolt-taking beams with pre-configured
bolt holes need to be developed. Once developed, all that needs to be
done is to quickly unbolt and remove unwanted seats and bolt on the
new feature, such as Hotel Beds. Or, say, unbolting 1 or 2 rows of
unwanted seats and redistributing the freed up space for all the rest
of the remaining seats by simply unbolting a locking bolt to slide the entire remaining rows for more leg space. Expansion bolts are a
possible way to do all these.

12. Airlines ordering the A380 or plane interior designers can start
to design such Instant Parts, etc, that can be safely bolted down
within an hour or so, using Knock Down parts much like Ikea furniture, etc. These should be easily transported and assembled into the plane interior and bolted down within an hour or so. This is not at all difficult. Modular furniture has existed for decades.

13. Transportation of the parts is dead easy because airports already have all the trucks, trolleys, container loaders, etc, to load parts onto planes. The only snag may be that currently, planes are designed to load even big containers, into the cargo bay area and not directly into the passenger areas. This is not a huge problem because a little modification to the door and entry areas and maybe the installation of a lift or lifting platform from the cargo deck to the passenger deck is all that is needed. In fact, if there is spare cargo space in the cargo hold, the plane itself can carry the Instant Parts needed for deployment.

14. So, with this Flexible Interiors idea, big planes that find
themselves with many untaken seats can quickly, within an hour or so, outfit the spare and unused space with generous facilities from Instant Lounges, to Instant Pubs, to Instant Gyms, to Instant Hotels, to Instant Library or Reading Rooms, to Instant Playgrounds for children, if say, the airline is carrying many children like on a school excursion, say, or even Instant Golf Putting Green, etc, etc. The potential is limited only by the imagination.

15. Imagine the kind of advertising and marketing that this Flexible
Interiors idea can generate! Most airline marketing and advertising
suck because airlines and planes are practically identical. With this
Flexible Interior idea, instantly, marketing and advertising will be,
of course, FLEXIBLE! Airlines can now pitch their services with all
kinds of offers. Some can offer Golf In The Air, others Hotel In The
Air, others Playground In The Air, others Video Games In The Air,
others Internet In The Air, etc.

16. If this idea works, this could be the biggest idea in air travel
since passenger travel was invented.

Robert HO
5 Oct 04 1340
Singapore

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