Designing a tablet holder to reduce discomfort among airline pilots

Abstract

This report is the result of an IPD (Integrated Product Design) master thesis at the faculty of industrial design engineering at the TU Delft. The company, for which the project was executed, is mainly focused on manufacturing flight-deck seating for the airline industry (pilot seats for airliners). Their biggest and main client is Boeing, for which they provide all airliner flight-deck seats.

A graduation report ‘Back injuries among KLM pilots’ (Vaart, 2009), showed that the graduation company’s flight-deck seat pan and backrest contour does not provide a good sitting posture. They both initiate a slouched seating posture, which can lead to severe back problems (Al-Eisa, et al., 2006). Due to the lack of ergonomically designed flight-deck seats, pilots seemed to be more absent compared to other airline employees. In fact, KLM pilots report much more absenteeism (5,8%) due to back problems than the average KLM employee (4,4%) (Vaart, 2009).

The first goal of the master thesis was to highlight multiple ways of improving the flight-deck seats in order to reduce discomfort among airline pilots. This was achieved by analysing the seat, analysing the flight-deck, interviewing pilots and by co-operating in an extensive user research on Boeing 737 aircraft. It appeared that most airline pilots are obligated to use tablets, for filling in checklists and doing calculations. However, they do not have an assigned place for the tablet on board the flight-deck. Additionally, data from the user research showed that pilots perceive most discomfort in the upper back and often adapt into a slumped seating posture due to reaching for the flight-deck controls, using the tablet or during reading activity. Furthermore, the pilots seemed to have a large area of visual attention, which causes them to move their heads from side to side. These findings lead to the final search area, formulated into the following design goal:

“Designing a tablet holder to reduce discomfort among airline pilots”

The tablet holder design can reduce discomfort among airline pilots while enhancing their work environment and supporting growth towards future technology advances in the flight-deck. The product can be beneficial for the aircraft manufacturer and the airline. It enables the aircraft manufacturer to work towards making airplanes easier to control. Additionally, a platform to incorporate flight-control systems into the tablet could act as the instigator for a distributed, air/ground, socio-technical system. Both aspects that adhere to the growing demand of pilots and which supports the change towards single-pilot operated aircraft. Additionally, the tablet allows the aircraft manufacturer to get rid of a fixed EFB and allows the airline to work towards a digitalized documentation system, which can be accessed through the tablet.