Qantas equips cabin seats for extremely lengthy flights.
Qantas is showcasing the new Business Class and First Class seats that will be placed in its future Airbus A350-1000 fleet and that transform into tiny bedrooms to make 22-hour flights more bearable as part of its Project Sunrise for extremely long-haul international flights.
First Class ultra-long distance seating Safran Seats
The only real room for improvement in international flights is to work toward giving subsonic aircraft longer ranges until supersonic passenger aircraft are once again deployed. Project Sunrise, described as “the last frontier of global aviation” by Alan Joyce, CEO of Qantas, envisions 18 to 22-hour transoceanic flights from Australia’s east coast to Europe and North America.
Engineering-wise, that’s a completely plausible objective, and the twin-engine Airbus A350-1000 makes it possible with a range of 10,000 miles (16,000 km). Nonstop flights that last all day, though, could seem more like an endurance test from the perspective of the traveler.
Airships, which moved so slowly that crossing the Atlantic took five to ten days in the past, would have been the only option for such lengthy journeys. Airships had the advantage of having a lot of space on board that could be assigned for cabins, dining rooms, viewing galleries, and even smoking lounges. Sitting in a modern air passenger seat for that length of time would likely count today as a human rights violation.
Business Class ultra-long distance seating Safran Seats
The option is to be a bit more conservative with the seating as jetliners lack the space for that level of luxury and the flying piano bar has long since disappeared. The 52 new Unity First Class and Business seats that will be fitted in the A350-1000 pack a lot into a compact space and provide a splash of privacy. They were built by Safran Seats in design collaboration with Caon Studios and the Charles Perkins Centre (CPC) in Sydney.
The six First Class seats resemble miniature staterooms with their own doors and feature a parallel rectangular bed next to the wide seat, a number of cubby holes and stowage options, including a pajama drawer, a large console, and a large single-piece dining table in addition to the standard infotainment system with 32-inch screen.
The Business Class seats, on the other hand, have their own doors, storage spaces, and are staggered so that the seat behind can fold down into a full-length bed similar to a pilot cabin on a yacht while allowing the leg compartment to extend into the seat ahead and serve as a side table.
The first Sunrise flight will go down in history, according to Safran Seats CEO Victoria Foy. “We are thrilled to provide Qantas with seats that satisfy the criteria of ultra-long-haul flights and which provide a comfortable voyage for all customers. The development of this seat is evidence of the exceptional cooperation between the UK-based Safran Seats teams and Qantas.
Source: Safran Seats
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