RATIOS, FINALISES INNOVATIVE, WEIGHT SAVING CABIN CONFIGURATOR

AUGUST, 2020

This article was originally published by Clean Sky EU, within the section E-news, on 10/08/2020 and it is written by Catherine Collins, who agreed on the publication of his content on RATIOS website.

Clean Sky 2’s RATIOS project is designing the cabin interior of the future for regional aircraft, and the final configuration was recently completed. The futuristic design endeavours to optimise travel times while maximising the passengers’ flight experience and, of course, reducing weight and improving eco-compliance thanks to the use of new technologies and materials.

According to research carried out by the RATIOS consortium, passengers currently consider air travel to be a stressful and uncomfortable experience, and the project hopes to remedy this. Their research suggests that the air travellers of 2035 will expect a higher level of comfort and services, seamless connectivity and cabin amenities that are really only available for long-range and premium-class travellers today. The development of innovative design concept solutions, technologies and approaches will enable the project to make a high-quality experience available to all passengers.

Check out this video to see how the RATIOS team envisages the regional aircraft cabin of the future – with changes seen in the seating, overhead bin storage areas, windows and ceiling.

Play Video

In order to address some of the ‘pain points’ that passengers encounter every day on regional aircraft, a human-centred design approach was adopted from the very beginning of the project.

This meant that the engineers built on the results that emerged from research into future scenarios and the customer journey. Different cabin architecture concepts and layouts were created along with selected styling concepts. Once the most promising concept was defined and selected, the team performed an overall feasibility study and carried out material and technology scouting and assessment.

The passenger experience was always at the heart of the design and to that end RATIOS also carried out colour and lighting research and tested the optimal integration of digital technologies.

By leveraging new upcoming technologies, solutions and materials that were identified in 2035 scenarios, the team is creating breakthrough innovative concepts and cabin solutions, in particular examining the fusion between physical features and digital/virtual technologies.

After a series of refinements, the final configuration was developed. A 3D virtual model was built presenting detailed definition of geometries and aesthetic and visible details of the passenger cabin items and surfaces.

Next steps will involve the implementation of the 3D virtual model and the full-scale physical mock-up in order to run the test validation phase with virtual reality technology. This will involve a selected group of end-users representing the different categories of passengers.

The RATIOS project started on 1 March 2019 and will run until 28 February 2021, and received €551 497.50 in funding from the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme for research and innovation. The consortium consists of Delta Interior (Project Coordinator), leader in aircraft interior design and manufacturing; Studio Volpi (Partner), a company with experience in design concepts, technology and innovation; and Leonardo, global leading company specialised in aerospace, defense and security, covering the role of Topic Manager of the project.

LEONARDO Aircraft is the Topic Manager of the Project: in force of its position of aircraft integrator, it defines the platform requirements and constraints based on which verifies that all the developed innovative technologies are feasible and in line with the expected achievements.