Double-decker economy seating at 30,000 feet in the air?

Air travel today is one of the most preferred modes of travel with more and more people taking to the skies, like never before. The high market success of innumerable LCCs has made air travel affordable even to the common man.

Not surprisingly, airlines have wanted to cash in on this aspect and generate more profits. Modifying the passenger cabin seating arrangement and the seat design to accommodate more passengers was one way, although at times it would come in the way of the level of travel comfort experienced by the passengers.

Nevertheless, airplane seat designers have long been dreaming up innovative economy cabin concepts, looking for the ideal balance between squeezing in as many passengers in as possible, and keeping the experience relatively enjoyable for fliers.

Fast Company

Touted to be a gamechanger for the aviation industry, the Chaise Longue Airplane Seat design, is one such concept which would see economy class plane passengers seated on top of each other double-decker bus style has been described as “roomy and comfortable” yet “claustrophobic”.

The Chaise Longue Economy Seat

Designed by Alejandro Nuñez Vicente, a 22 year old student who hails from Spain but studies at TU Delft University in the Netherlands, the dual-level design would see passengers in the top row climb steps to their seats, while those in the bottom row would be able to stretch their legs out flat.

Business Insider Espana

Meant to be installed in a bi-level cabin that has rows of traditional seats on the floor, and rows of elevated seats, it is touted to enable airlines to maximize space without sacrificing passenger comfort. People will be able to stretch out until they are almost completely horizontal as if seated on a divan or chaise longue, hence the name of the invention.

So, what according to Alejandro, inspired the design?

Apparently, his experiences traveling across Europe in economy partly inspired the idea. Alenjandro is over six feet tall and his height and frequent flights home to Madrid is how he came up with the idea for the Chaise Longue Economy Seat.

Fast Company

I used to fly home to Madrid on weekends, and those short flights were terrible. I can’t even imagine what long flights on those planes would be like. That’s when the idea started to take shapeAlenjandro said in conversation with El Pais

The innovative design does away with the overhead cabin, moving storage for carry-on luggage to compartments between the top and bottom rows. Extra legroom for passengers seated in the lower rows are also added. Since the rows of seats are not lined up one after the other, a seat can be reclined much more than normal without disturbing the passenger behind.

El Pais

These seats can recline 125 degrees, 15 degrees more than normal. No other airplane seat available today can do thisAlenjandro

Though initially intended for the Flying-V airplane which is currently in development at TU Delft, Alenjandro says it could also be implemented in a Boeing 747, Airbus A330 or any other medium to a large airplane.

The Flying-V airplane | Representative | Airline Ratings

The lower row has the advantage of passengers having the lounge experience of a couch by stretching the legs, whilst the upper row provides an SUV experience, making it possible for instance to cross the legs due to the increased leg room and overall living spaceAlenjandro

Furthermore, the seat pieces are designed to be easily movable, allowing a commercial aircraft to be converted for cargo use.

At the moment. Alenjandro isn't focussed on cramming on more passengers on planes, rather passenger comfort and experience is what he is working on. With some modifications on the Chaise Longue Economy Seat, an additional 5-10% increase in seating capacity could be attained but that's for later.

At the moment, this is an internal student-led university project which still hasn't been formally presented to airlines. However, some companies in the aerospace sector have already shown interest in the Chaise Longue Economy Seat project, presenting possible chances for future collaborationssays Núñez Vicente

The design, which was nominated in the 2021 Crystal Cabin Awards, will be showcased in AIX, one of the world's biggest aviation shows in the world.

SOURCE(s)

COVER: The Street

The U.S. State Department has approved a potential direct commercial sale of six additional Boeing AH-64E Apache heavy attack helicopters to India for an estimated cost of USD 930 million.

Indian Air Force operates 22 Apache attack helicopters and 15 Chinook heavy-lift helicopters procured from Boeing through the Foreign Military Sales programme of the U.S. government under a USD 3 billion deal in September 2015.

Further, during the visit of U.S. President Donald Trump to India in February 2020, India signed a deal for six more Apaches to cost around USD 800 million to be operated by the Army.

AH-64D Apache attack helicopter

The AH-64 Apache is the world’s most advanced multi-role combat helicopter. Used by the U.S. Army and a growing number of international defence forces, India is the 16th nation to select the Apache.

The AH-64E is an advanced multi-mission helicopter with the latest technology insertions, maintaining its standing as the world’s best attack helicopter.

It is the only available combat helicopter with a spectrum of capabilities for virtually any mission requirement, including greater thrust and lifts, joint digital operability, improved survivability and cognitive decision aiding.

The AH-64 Apache is the world’s most advanced multi-role combat helicopter.

Apache helicopters, referred to as "tank killers," come armed with Hellfire precision-strike missiles and air-to-air Stinger missiles.

Tata Boeing Aerospace Limited (TBAL), a joint venture between Boeing and Tata Advanced Systems Ltd. (TASL), was established in 2016 to manufacture fuselages for the AH-64 Apache. TBAL’s 14,000 sq.m. Hyderabad facility has been delivering AH-64 Apache fuselages since May 2018.

The advanced manufacturing facility will eventually become the sole producer of AH-64 fuselages in the world, with 90% parts sourced from Indian suppliers.

Torbjorn Sjogren, vice-president of international government and defence at Boeing, says the F/A-18 Super Hornet is the right aircraft for the Indian Navy.

F/A-18 Super Hornets can be used for any ops anywhere in the world.

Pitching its F/A-18 Super Hornets as the premier carrier aircraft in the world, US aviation major Boeing has said that their fighter offers more to the Indian Navy than competitor Rafale M by French firm Dassault Aviation.

Underlining that the Super Hornets are the US Navy’s clear choice for operations anywhere in the world, Torbjorn Sjogren, vice-president of international government and defence at Boeing, told in an exclusive interview that the company has the right aircraft for both the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force (IAF).

If the Indian Navy chooses Super Hornet, India's cooperation with the US will deepen further. The US has the largest original equipment manufacturers in India and the Super Hornet has inter-operability with Boeing P8I and Lockheed Martin MH-60 R anti-submarine warfare helicopters purchased by India for the Navy. 

ALSO READ - Boeing highlights F/A-18 Super Hornet Block III capabilities to Indian Navy

A probe has been initiated into the fire in a Delhi-bound SpiceJet aircraft after take-off from Patna and two other air incidents, involving the IndiGo and SpiceJet flights, a senior official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said on Monday, June 20.

On Sunday, June 19 a Delhi-bound aircraft of the SpiceJet airlines carrying 185 passengers caught fire soon after taking off from the Patna airport and made an emergency landing minutes later.

"The aircraft landed safely in Patna and the passengers de-boarded safely. Post-flight inspection showed bird hit, with three fan blades damaged," the airline had said in a statement. In another incident on Sunday, June 19 a SpiceJet flight for Jabalpur had to return to Delhi due to a "pressurisation" issue. The SpiceJet Bombardier Q400 aircraft with registration no. VT-SUU, operating its flight SG-2962 (Delhi-Jabalpur) was involved in air turnback due to pressurisation snag.During the initial climb, the crew observed the cabin pressure differential was not building up along with rising in cabin altitude. The aircraft was levelled off at 6,000 feet, and non-normal checklist actions were carried out but pressurisation was not regained and airturn back was initiated."DGCA Official

The aircraft landed safely in Delhi. SpiceJet, in a statement, confirmed the safe mid-air return of its Delhi-Jabalpur flight on account of "cabin pressure differential".

In another incident on Sunday, the pilot-in-command of an IndiGo-operated Airbus A320neo plane, VT-ITB, operating flight 6E-6394 from Guwahati to Delhi, decided to take the flight back to Guwahati on a single-engine after the aircraft suffered a bird hit, which resulted in one of the engines getting damaged when the aircraft was at an altitude of 1,600 feet, the official said.

DGCA initiates probe in turbulence at SpiceJet and IndiGo flights

"The aircraft could not climb to 6,000 feet. After clearance maintained 2,000 ft and (flight crew) did ECAM (Electronic Centralised Aircraft Monitor) actions. Engine 01 was shut down per ECAM," he said. The aircraft, however, landed back safely at runway 20 of the Guwahati Airport, he added.

The ECAM is a system on Airbus aircraft for monitoring and displaying engine and aircraft system information to the pilots. In the vent of a malfunction, it will display the fault and may also display the appropriate steps of the remedial actions.

The ECAM is a system on Airbus aircraft for monitoring and displaying engine and aircraft system information to the pilots.

The official also said that the flight crew initially declared a 'Mayday' call on board the IndiGo airline's flight, which was later cancelled and changed to a "Pan-Pan" call.

"IndiGo Airbus A320neo (VT-ITB) operating flight 6E 6394 from Guwahati-Delhi returned to Guwahati airport, due to a suspected bird hit after take-off. All passengers were accommodated on another flight to Delhi," IndiGo said in a statement.

ALSO READ - IndiGo aircraft suffers engine damage after hit by a bird; returns safely to Guwahati

A probe has been instituted in all three incidents, the DGCA official said.

A Delhi-bound IndiGo flight from Guwahati returned to Guwahati airport due to a suspected bird hit after the takeoff on Sunday, June 19. All passengers were accommodated on another flight to Delhi and the aircraft was inspected.

"IndiGo Airbus A320neo (VT-ITB) operating flight 6E 6394 from Guwahati-Delhi returned to Guwahati airport, due to a suspected bird hit after takeoff. All passengers were accommodated on another flight to Delhi. The aircraft is being held on the ground for necessary inspections," the IndiGo said in a statement.

“Engine number 1 of the aircraft (VT-ITB) got damaged due to a bird hit when it was at an altitude of 1,600 feet. The crew then performed ‘ECAM’ actions. Engine number one was shut down. The aircraft returned to Guwahati safely,” said a senior DGCA official probing this case.

Instances of bird hits increase during monsoon as water-logged ground drives insects to the ground, attracting birds.

According to the aviation website Skybrary, ECAM is the “Airbus version of an enhanced engine indicating and crew alerting system (EICAS) system. It presents data on the engine/warning display and system display inclusive of primary engine indications, fuel quantity, flap and slat position.”

Instances of bird hits increase during monsoon as water-logged ground drives insects to the ground, attracting birds.

This was a third such incident in a day when a flight made an emergency landing. Earlier on Sunday, June 19 evening, a Jabalpur-bound SpiceJet flight landed back at the Delhi Airport after it failed to regain the cabin pressure differential even after attaining a height of 6,000 feet.

SpiceJet flight landed back at the Delhi Airport after it failed to regain the cabin pressure differential even after attaining a height of 6,000 feet.

According to a statement by the spokesperson of the airline, the cabin pressure differential was unable to be built up as the altitude of the cabin rose from the ground.

Earlier, in another incident concerning the airline, a SpiceJet Boeing 737 with about 185 people on board passengers returned safely to Patna soon after an emergency landing on Sunday, June 19 afternoon following the reports of a fire in one of the engines.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) officials said that the plane (VT-SYZ), prima facie, was involved in air turnback as the cabin crew informed PIC about sparks coming out of the engine.

During the rotation, the cockpit crew suspected a bird hit on the engine. Later, the crew did not observe any abnormality and the flight resumed further climb.

During the rotation, the cockpit crew suspected a bird hit on the engine. Later, the crew did not observe any abnormality and the flight resumed further climb.

"The flight returned back after a bird hit and due to one engine shut in the air, all on-board passengers safe," the officials added.

On Sunday, June 19 afternoon, a Delhi-bound Spice Jet aircraft made an emergency landing at Patna airport after there were reports of a technical glitch which prompted fire inside the plane. All the passengers were safely rescued.

ALSO READ - Significant increase in bird and animal strike incidents in 2021 at Indian airports

ALSO READ - Bird Strikes | How common are they and what is done to prevent them?

Air India to focus after its transfer to the Tata group in January has been on improving safety, cleanliness and on-time performance. Now comes the hard part – expansion to international routes and acquisition of new aircraft.

Setting the stage for the turnaround of Air India, Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran laid down a roadmap with four core areas for the new management to focus on - providing “best in class customer service”; making Air India the “most technologically advanced airline in the world”; upgrading aircraft, bringing in new fleet and expanding the airline’s network; and ensuring in-flight and off-flight hospitality is “the best”.

Air India Eyes Multiple Hubs, International Expansion

Air India plans to open multiple hubs across India over the coming years to help capture the surging demand in the country’s domestic market and drive an ambitious international expansion strategy under its new owner TATA group.

Air India has the strategy already in place where they have a hub in Delhi for all our long-haul and our short-haul markets. This is expected to grow because going forward, management’s thought and vision are to create several hubs in India, which would facilitate growth in each of the regions.

“We have seen the Indian market being catered to by one-stop product for a long time now. It is time with the new management and the new vision to take back the market to direct offerings so that our customers have options and direct offerings to take them to their destinations."North America is an important market for us, and we see in the next few years with our expansion plans, we will be tripling our capacity into North America."Jinesh Papdiwal, Senior Manager, Tata Sons

According to data provided by OAG Schedules Analyser, Air India is the fifth-largest player in India’s domestic market during June 2022, with a 7.6% capacity share of all departure seats. LCC IndiGo is the largest, commanding 55.4%, followed by Go First on 9.9%, SpiceJet on 9.2% and Vistara on 8.4%.

Expanding its international footprint means acquiring more aircraft. International aircraft manufacturers have started wooing Indian carriers with their latest offerings.

Air India is the fifth-largest player in India’s domestic market during June 2022, with a 7.6% capacity share of all departure seats.

For instance, Airbus recently flew the Airbus A350 Extra Wide Body aircraft to India. The aircraft is capable of flying non-stop between Bengaluru and San Francisco, a route that Air India had been looking for a long time. 

ALSO READ - Air India to add A350 aircraft to its fleet; first aircraft likely by 2023

An Air India commander said that the A350-900 ULR can fly non-stop between Mumbai and Buenos Aires, Mumbai and Panama City (which if it is launched will be the world’s longest flight) and Delhi-Auckland; it can even connect Thiruvananthapuram with Tel Aviv.  

Air India is planning to scale up its fleet by more than 200 planes in the next 5 years. Of this, 70% of the orders would be narrow-bodied planes while 30% would be wide-bodies. 

Air India already serves 50 domestic destinations but wants to increase the number to 200.

The carrier is said to be considering an order for the European company’s A350 wide-bodied planes. If that happens, it would be its first aircraft order since 2006 by the recently privatised airline. It would also make Air India the first Indian airline to order the A350, which is gaining popularity among global carriers for fuel-efficiency. 

Air India already serves 50 domestic destinations but wants to increase the number to 200. Through codeshares and partnerships, the airline also serves 75 international destinations but hopes to grow to more than 125 points.

Air India wants to double its capacity to Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Central CIS countries, as well as ramp up operations to Australia and markets in Southeast Asia and Far East Asia. Of course, direct flights to the US also remain a high priority for the carrier.

The KAI KF-21 Boramae (formerly known as KF-X), is a fighter aircraft development program between the South Korean and Indonesian air forces with an 80:20 split between Seoul and Jakarta.

Popular Mechanics

The fighter craft derives its name from the historical term describing one-year-old hunting hawks specifically trained for traditional falconry and is projected to form the future backbone of the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) and the Indonesian air force (TNI-AU).

Touted to be a 4.5-generation fighter, the airframe is reportedly stealthier than any fourth-generation fighter. However, it does not carry any weapons in internal bays like fifth-generation fighters although internal bays could be introduced later in development.

From the vault

First announced in March 2001, the KF-X advanced multi-role jet fighter project was initially intended to replace South Korea's ageing F-4D/E Phantom II and F-5E/F TIGER II aircraft.

McDonnel Douglas F-4D/E Phantom II | Wikipedia

After weathering numerous delays and postponements, on 15 July 2010, a partnership was made with Indonesia, which would provide 20% of the funding for the KF-X project and cooperate with technological development through state-owned Indonesian Aerospace.

In April 2021, the first prototype was completed and unveiled during a rollout ceremony at the headquarters of KAI (Korean Aerospace Industries) in Sacheon.

Tech and specs

The initial goal for the program was to develop a single-seat twin-engine multirole fighter with stealth capabilities exceeding both the Dassault Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon but less than those of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. 

Representative | Quora

Despite its apparent similarities to the F-35, it is not designed to be as low-observable as the F-35 and the overall design architecture features fuselage shaping, canted tails and edge alignment that is touted to reduce radar cross-section (RCS)- which is reported to be down to 1-.1 square meters.

The radar is the culmination of a decade-long effort and a three-year development program by the R&D. It involved operating a test radar from the open rear ramp of a C-130 Hercules, as well as using a South African-registered Boeing 737-55S (ZS-TFJ), which had a KF-21 radome grafted onto its nose.

Representative | AVIATIA

The fighter bird features an active electronically scanned array radar (AESA), developed in collaboration between Hanwha Systems and Israel's Elta Systems. Israel's Elbit Systems is supplying the terrain-following/terrain-avoidance system to Hanwha, who is also developing the nose-mounted infrared search and track sensor based on Leonardo's SkyWard system.

Aviation International News

Powered by two General Electric F414-400K engines, each producing 22,000 pounds of afterburning thrust, they feature axisymmetric nozzles.

Aviation Week

In comparison to the later F-35s that feature more stealthy, driverless supersonic inlets, the KF-21 features F-22 style caret inlets with boundary-layer diverters.

KF-21's integrated electronic warfare suit is being developed by S.Korea's LIG Nex1, which includes radar jamming, warning and flare systems. Additionally, it is also developing the digital flight computer and the low-profile heads-up display (HUD) building on waveguide-optics technology by BAE.

South Korea is reportedly acquiring air-to-air missiles from European companies MBDA and Diehl BGT for the first batch of KF-21s, which will carry its weapons externally. The Block 2 variant is proposed to carry precision-guided munitions and indigenously developed stand-off cruise missiles.

Representative | aviacionline.com

The KF-21 being the most advanced aircraft program for the country to date has six flight prototypes and two rescue prototypes of the KF-21 is currently used for ground tests-according to an official publication of the South Korean Ministry of National Defense.

Serial production is slated to commence by 2026 while the program aims to deploy 40 and 120 aircraft by 2028 and 2032 respectively.

With 50% of the ground tests completed, the remaining tests are expected to be completed soon and the first flight is tentatively set for July 2022.

SOURCE(s)

COVER: CNN