Friday, March 18, 2016

Cabin Fever


In years to come you may be able to blame Canada's National Research Council when you have a sado-masochistic experience flying cattle class on a Canadian airline.

Billions have been spent developing new technologies for aircraft aerodynamics, structures, systems and engines, but relatively little seems to have been invested in scientifically researching how passengers experience their flights and how cabins could be improved.

Canada’s National Research Council (NRC) Aerospace is completing construction of a facility at its Ottawa campus that will enable large-scale studies to improve passenger comfort and cabin-crew performance and accelerate the development of new cabin concepts.

The Cabin Comfort and Environment Research (CCER) facility is being funded under NRC’s Working and Traveling on Aircraft program and will simulate the entire passenger experience, from check-in to the gate area through boarding to inflight services and deboarding.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

NRC should mind its business and conduct more basic research. Leave the commercial applications to commercial enterprises. Cabin Comfort and Environment "Research", eh?
A..non

Simon said...

hi Mound....what they urgently need to focus on is the lack of leg room on planes. I'm forced to travel business class because I'm too tall to fit in normal economy class seats. My worst experience came last year when flying back from the Caribbean. I booked the flight on Air Canada, but when the plane arrived I noticed it was one of their Rouge planes. And so sardine like was the economy class cabin that I had to sit sideways with my feet in the aisle !!!! Or stand up for about an hour, until the cabin crew offered me their seats at the back of the plane. Needless to say I will never fly Rouge again. But beyond my personal comfort I am even more disturbed, by the possible medical consequences on passengers. Being forced to spend so much time in such a cramped position can easily cause blood clots to form in your legs with possibly fatal consequences. I've heard that new regulations on leg room are coming, but they can't come soon enough...

Anonymous said...

In a perfect world major corporations would pay for their own R&D and public funds would be spent on advancing the public interest.