Sleeping on Clouds

Abstract

This Graduation product concerning a Master Thesis for the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering explores and develops an Economy Class Sleeping Facility meant for the Flying V concept plane developed by the Delft University of Technology. Sleeping and relaxing are the highest performed activities inside an airplane during cruise flight, however this is scored lowest on comfort. To increase passenger comfort on long-haul flights a better sleeping facility has to be provided by airlines. An extensive literature research along with gathering of relevant information resulted in a list of requirements the Economy Class Sleeping Facility had to fulfill. These requirements together with the knowledge from gathered information were taken into account during the ideation phase. Out of these ideas 2 ideas proved to be possible to turn into a viable product meeting all requirements. These ideas were subsequently turned into concepts by evaluating measurements to check if they were indeed as promising as expected from the ideation phase. A life size prototype was built to make it possible to test both concepts with potential users. This user test performed with 10 participants generated several insights which led to changes to the concepts. Subsequently, concepts were compared and evaluated by using a Harris-Profile to see if they met all requirements formulated from the analysis phase. From this evaluation 1 concept turned out to have the most potential and was chosen to developed into a full design. The final design consists of the Economy Class Sleeping Facility, but also took into account the whole economy class interior it should be placed in. A final evaluation was performed to evaluate the design and form recommendations. This final evaluation is done by an online questionnaire filled in by 204 participants, with 184 relevant responses.
This all resulted in the final design of the Economy Class Sleeping Facility. This Economy Class Sleeping Facility is unique because it offers beds that transform into seats which need to be used during taxi, take-off and landing. This all without occupying extra space, by applying the proposed lay-out capacity of the Flying V even increases with 3 passengers. The beds have a length of 193cm, which means that the majority of people can lay down fully flat while flying. Inside the cabin passengers have their own control panel controlling airflow, lights and the curtains which create privacy. Next to that each bed is equipped with a personal In-Flight Entertainment system. Out of 184 people who evaluated the design, aged between 17 and 75, 69,57% indicated they would use the bed system as presented to sleep during a long-haul flight. Also, participants rated the expected comfort of the beds with an average of 4,45 out of 7. While experienced comfort of sleeping in economy class seats was rated 2,63 out of 7. This shows a large increase in passenger comfort offered by the Economy Class Sleeping Facility.