This week brand new ideas in aviation interior design were awarded with the unique Crystal Cabin Award 2013 in Hamburg / Germany. Seven international aviation companies won on April 9 a prestigious trophy for innovations in aircraft cabin design that will make air travelling for passengers more comfortable and more sustainable.
The Crystal Cabin Award honours ideas in seven air cabin categories that benefit passengers and airlines alike. The US company Thales for instance convinced the jury with an in-flight entertainment system that passengers can control by eye movements and gestures. The technology eliminates the tiring need to continually look down at a remote control. Staff and students from the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW) were awarded for their “Big Lavatory Concept” (BigLavC) that offers more space in the aircraft lavatory particularly for the increasing number of heavier people. A further winner of the Crystal Cabin Awards 2013 was Boeing with an insulated galley cart that makes on-board cooling systems superfluous.
A total of 47 entries from eleven countries competed for the Crystal Cabin Award 2013. It is the only international award for aircraft cabin design of the future and is awarded at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg. This year the trade fair took place from 9 to 11 April. The Aircraft Interiors Expo is annually held in Hamburg and has become the world’s leading centre of aircraft cabin competence.
Besides Seattle and Toulouse, the Hamburg Metropolitan Region is the world’s most important location for the civil aviation industry. In addition to the three major companies Airbus, Lufthansa Technik and Flughafen Hamburg, more than 300 small and medium-sized enterprises with 40,000 highly qualified employees contribute to the region’s aviation know-how.
Hamburg is internationally renowned for its competence in aircraft cabins and cabin systems. In collaboration with small and medium-sized enterprises, Airbus is developing state-of-the-art cabin equipment, while Lufthansa Technik is the expert in catering for VIP requirements. Cabins are also a focus of the Hamburg Centre of Aviation Training (HCAT), an inter-campus cooperative project in which the industry, universities and trade schools collaborate to secure needs-based training of specialist personnel – a programme that is unique in Europe.
As one of Germany’s federal excellence clusters, Hamburg AVIATION has developed a cluster strategy that will make flying more economical, more ecological, more comfortable, more flexible and more reliable.
