SEATTLE – Do you hate being woken up while bouncing up and down during a flight?
So does the Boeing Co.’s Mike Sinnett.
As chief systems engineer for the company’s new 787 jet, Sinnett says passengers will enjoy a dreamier ride on the Dreamliner, due in part to a device that reduces the impacts of turbulence. Boeing calls it “vertical gust suppression.” Passengers should consider it “smooth ride insurance.”
“There’s going to be less anxiety and less discomfort over time,” Sinnett said.
That’s just of one of several 787 features – both inside and out – that Boeing officials hope will appeal to passengers and airlines alike. So far, it seems to be working. Boeing’s fuel-efficient Dreamliner, made from carbon-fiber composite materials, has won 568 orders from 44 customers. The plane is scheduled to roll out of the Everett factory July 8.
Inside its motion lab across from Boeing Field, company engineers simulate various levels of turbulence in a machine that, from the outside, looks like a boxy carnival ride. On the inside, “passengers” strap themselves into an airplane flight deck.
Last week, Boeing gave members of the media a chance to ride its motion simulator and experience the dips and jolts passengers feel when riding most airplanes during moderate turbulence. Then company engineers replicated what it may feel like to ride on a 787 when the company’s vertical gust suppression system is on.
“You get the discomfort of the vibration but you don’t get the big sinking feeling,” Sinnett said.
The company hasn’t figured out how to combat heavy turbulence and can’t smooth out the ride completely, but the difference is noticeable. Boeing leased a 777 jet to test its vertical gust suppression system, a feature that will come standard on all 787 aircraft.
Although Boeing officials won’t give away the secret to their system, they did say it essentially senses vertical gusts and adjusts wing flaps enough to counter the plane’s typical reaction: a rise and fall motion.
Besides taming turbulence, Boeing engineers have addressed the dreaded dry air inside a jet’s cabin that causes passengers to feel tired and dehydrated after they travel.
After conducting a battery of tests on passengers, Boeing found that cabin altitude was the “single biggest thing” that could be adjusted to make travelers’ flight more comfortable, Sinnett said.
They’ve pressurized the 787’s cabin to 6,000 feet, evened out the humidity level to 15 percent and added scrubbers to the air system to remove gases emitted by common items, like the hand wipes that come with an airplane meal.
Finally, the Boeing team paid attention to the more tangible details of its new 787. The company added things like larger, dimmable windows, 9- to 10-inch seatback screens and a full-spectrum lighting system that can cast a sunrise from one end of the cabin to the other.
“It’s going to make other airplanes that much paler in comparison to a 787,” said Sean Sullivan, with 787 cabin services.
Reporter Michelle Dunlop: 425-339-3454 or mdunlop@heraldnet.com.
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