EVERETT – It sounds like a comedy sketch ripped from a bad airplane movie:
A woman takes her toddler into an airline lavatory to change his diaper and use the facilities, and while she’s busy, the youngster opens the door and scoots bare-bottomed down the aisle, while she’s caught literally with her pants down.
It’s actually happened, said Doug Ackerman, a Boeing Co. manager, whose Payloads Concepts Center team is working on ways to stop it.
Airline lavatories are flawed compromises – small by necessity, cramped and awkward. “It’s not generally the most enjoyable portion of your flight,” Ackerman said.
But Boeing’s making a major push with the new 7E7 to improve passenger comfort. It’s all about “the user experience (and) factoring that in, in the first place,” he said.
That led to his group developing what Boeing calls its “Dream Lav,” which Ackerman said is sort of a “concept car” illustrating the kinds of features that airlines could order in the new jet.
The first step, Ackerman said, was coming with universal designs that can be intuitively understood by people from all cultures the first time they fly.
That meant new doors, for starters. Airliners now have bi-fold lavatory doors that open inward when you push in the middle. No culture, anywhere on earth, uses doors like that on spaces that people walk into, Ackerman said. They’re confusing.
So the Dream Lav features sliding doors. Its handles are lit with green lights when the lav is empty, and red lights when it’s not.
Inside, the layout is geared to ways people use restrooms. There’s a separate counter, away from the wet sink, for women to put purses. There’s also enough room for a large, fold-down diaper changing table – one that includes a strap-in seat for toddlers.
The Dream Lav features automated lights to help guide users around the lavs. When you flush, that turns on the sink faucet for you to wash your hands. When you take a paper towel, the water shuts off and the waste basket opens to receive the used towel.
It might even have windows, Ackerman said. “It’s something some airlines have expressed an interest in.”
The whole thing is big enough to allow parents to bring children into the lavatory, but it’s still the same size as a handicapped-accessible lavatory, which is 6 inches wider than standard.
Key people who worked on the Dream Lav concept are now working on the 7E7 design team, Ackerman said.
Whether the Dreamliner loos end up looking like that will depend on a number of trade-offs – floor space, cost and weight.
For airlines, the key questions are “can it fly far enough and can people afford to buy it?” Ackerman said.
The prototype has proved popular with potential 7E7 buyers, Ackerman said. There’s just one drawback – some fear the Dream Lav is just too nice, and bathroom users will dawdle there instead of returning to their seats.
Reporter Bryan Corliss: 425-339-3454 or corliss@heraldnet.com.
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