787 designed to eliminate altitude sickness

The Australian

According to Boeing studies, memories of our first flight bring pleasure but recollections of our most recent flight bring anguish.

And it is the first-flight experience that Boeing is striving to bring back with its new 787 Dreamliner, according to interior design engineer Ken Price.

To do that, Boeing has gone to great lengths to study the effect of flight on passengers, to better understand design criteria.

It turns out that we do not like being stuffed into an aluminium tube and shot through the air at 900km/h.

Mr Price said that Boeing had used special pressurised chambers to study the effects of altitude on passengers.

“We found that up to 6500ft pressurisation has no effect on passengers, but at 8000ft – the normal pressurisation altitude for jet aircraft – the effects were similar to mild altitude sickness for some people.”

The strength of the 787 composite structure will enable Boeing to increase the cabin pressurisation to the 6000ft level. “It doesn’t seem like a big difference, but at 6000ft all the effects of altitude sickness are eliminated,” Mr Price said.

The combination of the composite structure which does not corrode and the pressurisation means that the 787’s cabin will have a much higher humidity, which will also lessen the effects of dehydration – a major factor in jet lag.

“We can triple or quadruple the amount of humidity in the cabin,” Mr Price said. “Passengers are going to be much more comfortable.”

He said that with the physical side of travelling licked, Boeing was also focusing on the psychological aspects.

Striving for more visual space, it decided to double the size of aircraft windows, giving the impression of greater aircraft space. This reduced significantly the feeling of claustrophobia – one of the major causes of fear of flying.

Mr Price said designers had also noted the trend to bring on board larger carry-on items, and designed overhead lockers accordingly.

The cabin cross-section of the 787 is slightly smaller than the 777 but the seats and aisles in the economy section will be wider in a standard 2-4-2 configuration.

While the 223-seat to 257-seat 787 is not yet on Qantas’s official shopping list, insiders at the airline are bullish on the aircraft’s capabilities and versatility.

Qantas announced last month it was in the market for a hub-busting aircraft to complement its yet to be delivered 501-seat A380s and it was also looking for replacements for its 265-seat Boeing 767s.

Boeing is touting its 787 as a solution for both missions. The manufacturer claims the 787 will be up to 20 per cent more efficient than the A330 currently in Qantas service and will have the range to fly from Sydney to Dallas and London to Perth nonstop, thereby meeting Qantas’s hub-busting requirements.