7E7 Design Details

Setting aside the question about whether the aircraft will ever get built for a
moment, there are some interesting 7e7 design details in this week's AvWeek:

Current fuselage is spec'd at 226" cross section, 14" wider than the A330, it's
intended competition Also wider than the A300/A310/B767.

Assuming 18.5" seats in economy, aisle width will be 21", or 2.25" wider than
the B777.

Nominal economy seating plan is 3-2-3, with 3-3-3 availble for charter and
domestic operations.

Bus Class seating can vary from 54-57" width, leaving 21-25.5" aisles.

Ceiling will be raised into the curve of the fuselage, making the cabin appear
to be more spacious. Lighting will be programmable high intensity LEDs, allowing
cabin crew to adjust color & intensity based on time of day.

Passenger windows will be significantly larger (19"x11"), allowing non-window
passengers to view out the window.

Windows will not have shades, but will be photochromatic, allowing the crew to
darken the windows on one side of the aircraft for sun, or boths sides for
movies. Some discussion going on over whether window passenger should have a
seat control, or possibly a communal control for the row.

Wider cabin will allow wider standard lavatory space. This has a couple of
potential benefits: More wheelchair lavs are possible, as is a split lav design
with urinals only on one side.

Recall that photo that showed up a few weeks ago with the funny looking seats?
Boeing says the airlines control seat selection, so that was just a mockup.
However, the overhead bag storage is not.

Economy will have a suspended center seat bag cabinet that will hold up to 2
roller bags per bin, placed end to end. The side cabinets are deeper and will
hold 4 bags per bin. Busniss class will not need/have the center cabinets,
giving a more spacious impression.

No mention of whether or not the entry overhead windows will survive the
beancounter review, or indeed any of the other features listed here.

"Clark W. Griswold, Jr." wrote:
Current fuselage is spec'd at 226" cross section, 14" wider than the A330, it's
intended competition Also wider than the A300/A310/B767.

Does the extra 14" give the cargo hold any significant advantage over the 330
? (can it accept bigger containers for instance) ?

If the cargo hold won't have significant advantage over 330, I wonder what
Boeing thinks it will achieve with an extra 14". If customers want 9 across,
they buy a 777. If they but an 8 across, they buy 7E7. They just need a cross
section that is 8 inches wider than 330 so that they can claim 1 extra inch
per seat.

An airline configuring for 8 across will be paying for those extra 14" of
unproductive space/weight so it is not going to look very kindly at giving
passengers ample legroom. The one configuring at 9 across might be more
amenable to giving better legroom, but passengers will suffer in seat width.

Nominal economy seating plan is 3-2-3, with 3-3-3 availble for charter and
domestic operations.

3-2-3 makes sense. The middle seats are both next to aisle, and the seats
further away from aisle get the highly valued compensation of a window.

Passenger windows will be significantly larger (19"x11"), allowing non-window
passengers to view out the window.

Windows will not have shades, but will be photochromatic, allowing the crew to
darken the windows on one side of the aircraft for sun,

That, I believe is pure fantasy. Do window shades cause maintenance problems ?
Individual controls are a must. And if they add buttons on the armrest to
control window shading, who gets the control of a window that is in between
rows ?

It is a neat technoloogy, but not sure it is really suited for airplane
travel. Another trial balloon by Boeing.


movies. Some discussion going on over whether window passenger should have a
seat control, or possibly a communal control for the row.

Imagine the fights and arguments. They'll need to have cockpit-like logic to
decide which armrest button has control. Kids will be playing all day.

On the other hand, having brightness controls might be neat for the whole window.

Recall that photo that showed up a few weeks ago with the funny looking seats?
Boeing says the airlines control seat selection, so that was just a mockup.

Boeing should still have had more realistic seats.

nobody writes
Windows will not have shades, but will be photochromatic, allowing the crew to
darken the windows on one side of the aircraft for sun,

I don't like the idea of the crew being able to easily mess with my
window!

That, I believe is pure fantasy. Do window shades cause maintenance problems ?
Individual controls are a must. And if they add buttons on the armrest to
control window shading, who gets the control of a window that is in between
rows ?

There could be a voting system where each person gets to determine a
proportion of the window opacity. Windows between rows could work in a
similar way: those closest to the window get more say in how opaque it
is.

Reminds me of a spoof "public transport of the future" documentary I saw
a while ago. Every passenger in a bus gets their own steering wheel and
a coin slot. The more you pay, the more say you have in where the bus
goes. Now there's a new idea for Ryanair!
--
Simon Elliott
http://www.ctsn.co.uk/

"Simon Elliott" wrote in message
...
nobody writes
Windows will not have shades, but will be photochromatic, allowing the
crew to
darken the windows on one side of the aircraft for sun,

I don't like the idea of the crew being able to easily mess with my
window!

That, I believe is pure fantasy. Do window shades cause maintenance
problems ?

I imagine that the shades are a maintenance item, being a bit flimsy to save
weight. They may also be a problem if some severe new flammability
requirements must be met.

With individual seatback displays, is there any reason to "pull the shades"
when the movie is shown? I like be able to see out the window and would
react negatively to having big brother/sister control MY window.

I really hope this is some gee-whiz drivel from the PR department.

"Clark W. Griswold, Jr." writes:

Windows will not have shades, but will be photochromatic,
allowing the crew to darken the windows on one side of the
aircraft for sun,


I remember reading in _AvLeak_ years ago (this would've been
circa 1969 or '70) that the L-1011 was going to have such
windows. Not programmable or centrally operated, of course,
but individually controlled. So the technology has evidently
existed for a long time.

I never saw another reference to that feature, though. And
since I never flew on a TriStar, I never had the opportunity
to see if Lockheed followed through with it. (Forgotten nuggets
from that era are often interesting. Nobody seems to remember,
for example, that the category of airliner originally defined
by the L-1011 and the DC-10 was known generically as the "airbus.")

I don't see why there'd be any controversy over the placement
of the window controls, though. Even with standard window
shades, it's only the occupant of the window seat who has
direct access to them. Window shade position is only decided
by the consensus of everyone in the row if the window passenger
is cooperative.



Geoff

--
"Do any men at all vote for the Democrats anymore?"
-- Ann Coulter

"Clark W. Griswold, Jr." writes:

Windows will not have shades, but will be photochromatic,
allowing the crew to darken the windows on one side of the
aircraft for sun,


if anyone has flown in FC on BA and QF 744s, you'll see that the FC
lavatories have such windows. The technology is already there.

"AJC" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 27 Nov 2003 05:42:23 -0500, "R J Carpenter"
wrote:


"Simon Elliott" wrote in message
...
nobody writes
Windows will not have shades, but will be photochromatic, allowing
the
crew to
darken the windows on one side of the aircraft for sun,

I don't like the idea of the crew being able to easily mess with my
window!

That, I believe is pure fantasy. Do window shades cause maintenance
problems ?

I imagine that the shades are a maintenance item, being a bit flimsy to
save
weight. They may also be a problem if some severe new flammability
requirements must be met.

With individual seatback displays, is there any reason to "pull the
shades"
when the movie is shown? I like be able to see out the window and would
react negatively to having big brother/sister control MY window.

I really hope this is some gee-whiz drivel from the PR department.




Yes, I don't want to hand over control of my window shade to the whims
of the cabin crew. Apparently Boeing are talking about an absurd 3-2-3
configuration, so if window seat pax are going to be punished with
having to climb over 2 people to get out, they deserve the
compensation of being able to look out of the window when they want. I
guess if they go ahead with these silly ideas it will be a question of
'I'm not going if it's a Boeing'.
--==++AJC++==--

This 3 - 2 - 3 also seems absurd to me. Not only because the one next to the
window have to climb two people in order to get out. But the isle seater
will also have be woken up every time on of the two inside need to go.

Nik

In article ,
AJC wrote:

Yes, I don't want to hand over control of my window shade to the whims
of the cabin crew. Apparently Boeing are talking about an absurd 3-2-3
configuration, so if window seat pax are going to be punished with

But great for those seated in the middle. I think this feature is to
cater for the enhanced fare passengers.