As part of Qantas’s Project Sunrise for ultra-long-distance flights, the airline is showing off its new Business and First Class seats that’ll be installed in its future Airbus A350-1000 fleet. The seating converts into small staterooms designed to make 22-hour long flights more endurable.
Until we once again have the option of supersonic passenger flights, the only real area for improvement for international flights is longer range subsonic aircraft. Called “the last frontier of global aviation” by Alan Joyce, Qantas CEO, Project Sunrise aims at flights from the East Coast of Australia, to Europe and North America with a flight time of 18 to 22 hours.
From an engineering perspective, it’s a reasonable goal and one that the Airbus A350-1000 makes possible with a range of 16,000 km (10,000 miles). However, as a passenger, non-stop flights lasting an entire day becomes more of a trial of endurance than a pleasurable trip.
In the past, a day-long flight would have been on an airship that took between five to 10 days to cross the Atlantic. Sitting in a modern air passenger seat for that long would probably be considered a human rights violation. Unlike today’s passenger planes, airships had a lot of space on board that could be allocated as staterooms, dining rooms, observation galleries, and even smoking lounges.
Passenger jets don’t have room for that level of luxury and the flying piano bar hasn’t been an around for decades. The alternative means being a lot more clever with seating. Built by Safran Seats in design collaboration with Caon Studios and Charles Perkins Centre (CPC) in Sydney, the 52 new Unity First Class and Business seats that will be installed in the A350-1000 squeeze a lot into a small space while adding a some privacy.
The First Class seats are essentially little staterooms with their own doors and 32-inch screen, the mini stateroom boasts a parallel rectangular bed next to the wide seat, numerous cubby holes and stowage options, including a drawer for pajamas, a large console, and a single-piece dining table.
Business Class seats have their own doors, stowage areas, and the seats are staggered, allowing for a leg compartment that extends well into the seat ahead and also acts as a side table, but lets the seat behind fold down into a full-length bed like a pilot berth on a sailboat.
“The first Sunrise flight will mark a date in history,” said Victoria Foy, CEO of Safran Seats. “We are delighted to provide Qantas with seats that meet the needs of ultra-long-haul flights and which allow a comfortable journey for all passengers. The creation of this seat is a demonstration of the remarkable collaboration between Qantas and the Safran Seats teams based in the United Kingdom.”
