Advanced aircraft seat design : designing features for improving comfort and ergonomy

Abstract

This design project examines scientific, creative and innovative means to improve passenger comfort in commercial airplane tourist-class seats during long haul flights. These means have been studied, designed, manufactured and tested consistent with the current size, space and safety constraints. The project involved three phases. In the first phase, the human factors research area, which includes ergonomics, human physiology and anthropometry, was studied. Moreover, passenger survey and quality function deployment were implemented. For the second phase of the design project a second passenger survey and a product design matrix were used for determining the design concepts that later were manufactured and evaluated. Finally, the features of the two design concepts that improve the ergonomy and the comfort of the seat, and their construction and evaluation have been presented analytically. The test observations showed that the use of an adjustable lumbar support with an adjustable winged headrest could increase the comfort of the aircraft seat, while the use of a height adjustable tray can significantly increase the ergonomy of the seat.