Airbus’ Connected Cabin Concept Is Materializing with First Round of Partnerships

The announcement was made during the 2019 Aircraft Interiors Expo (AIX) in Hamburg, Germany.

Airbus previously introduced connected cabin innovations along with the interior of the new Airbus A220 in September 2018. (Image courtesy: Airbus SE)

Airbus SE  is shifting its Connected Experience cabin concept into the first stages of reality with cooperative buy-in from gategroup Holding AG , Stelia Aerospace , and Recaro Aircraft Seating . Up until the partnership announcement, Airbus had been collecting extensive market feedback and refining its Internet of Things (IoT) approach to aircraft interiors, with real-time interconnected galleys, in-flight service carts, seats, and overhead bins.

Connected cabin components can help to consolidate pre-flight and real-time data into one integrated platform for flight crews, while providing passengers with a more personalized experience. Data points can then be automatically uploaded to a cloud platform such as Airbus’ Skywise to identify valuable aggregated cabin equipment usage trend information for airline operators. This data could be used for fleet-wide predictive maintenance analytics, resulting in cabin service reliability, quality, and performance improvements.

(Image courtesy: Airbus SE)

For passengers, connected interiors could translate into pervasive third-party data application hosting for communications, news, entertainment, and predictive entertainment suggestions at their destination.

William Kucinski  is content editor at SAE International, Aerospace Products Group in Warrendale, Pa. Previously, he worked as a writer at the NASA Safety Center in Cleveland, Ohio and was responsible for writing the agency’s System Failure Case Studies. His interests include literally anything that has to do with space, past and present military aircraft, and propulsion technology.

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