The cabin has futuristic blue mood lighting, which subtly
changes colours until there’s a rainbow effect that admittedly recalls
a 1970s porn movie. The windows are bigger; there’s more space; the
air feels less stifling; and the touchscreen inflight entertainment
system is like using an iPad instead of the hellishly fiddly video-
game controllers of most long-haul flights. And if you go on the
Norwegian Dreamliner, there are natty black-and-white portraits of
ice skater-turned-actress Sonja Henie around the place.
The reason it’s so good is perhaps because, in effect, you and I
designed it. Blake Emery, Boeing’s director
of differentiation strategy, led the concept
development behind the interior and says the
process was led by passengers for the first time
ever. “We thought planes were becoming a
commodity and wanted to try a more holistic
approach. Traditionally, Boeing always asked
their direct customers what they wanted from
new planes – in other words, the airlines. But
airlines often didn’t have the resources to
properly poll end users, so we decided to go
straight to the passengers and ask what they wanted.”
Emery got 50 focus groups together across the world over five
years in the mid-noughties, as well as experts such as French
psychologist and marketing guru Clotaire Rapaille, author
of the catchily titled
The Culture Code: An Ingenious Way to
Understand Why People Around the World Live and Buy as They Do
.
“Sometimes, we’d get 15 people in a room and just ask what they’d
like from a plane if they could have anything; other times we’d put
them in a mock-up of an interior and ask them how they felt; and
sometimes we’d ask questions to subjects who had no idea what
the interview was about – the aim was to get people to convey the
actual emotions they’d like to have when flying.”
»
Above
⁄
There are 1,300
bikes and tricycles at
Everett to get employees
around the huge factory
more quickly
Below
⁄
To further
speed up production,
parts are ready where
they’re needed
The forward
cargo
mechanic
Kameron Batterman
leads 15 people who
work on the forward
cargo of the 787-9 plane,
one of the bigger 787s.
“We do all the systems
work – the tubing, the
wiring, all the interior
stuff in the cargo hold
at the front. My grandad
worked for Boeing – he
dug trenches for them in
Wichita, before moving
the family here – and I
remember coming as a
kid and seeing the tiny
people on the factory
floor. A lot of people
from high school work at
Boeing – it’s like a high-
school reunion. Working
on the Dreamliner feels
like a new age – there
are a lot of new systems
to put in, but it’s such an
exciting plane.”
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