AIX issue: Smarten up cabin interiors with Diehl Aviation
This is a special feature from PAX Tech's May 2024 AIX issue, on page 16.
Rendering of Future Cabin
Returning to the Aircraft Interiors Expo (AIX) in Hamburg this month, Diehl Aviation can be found at booth 7D20, which is 40 percent larger than last year’s display, providing an extra 100 square meters for exhibits.
Guido van Geenen, VP Corporate Communications, Diehl Aviation
“We aim to take our visitors on a journey through time—from today to tomorrow and into the future,” Guido van Geenen, VP Corporate Communications, Diehl Aviation, tells PAX Tech. “Across different zones, we will showcase special product focuses, current innovations and future concepts.”
Imagining the future
Ahead of AIX, Diehl Aviation continues to inspire industry customers with its IMAGINE campaign. “At Diehl Aviation, IMAGINE stands for the infinite human imagination and the synergetic process of its realization,” van Geenen explains. “In harmony with the ideas, needs and wishes of our customers today, we create intelligent technologies, products and services that open up impressive new possibilities for the future of flying.”
This philosophy led to the launch of the “IMAGINE – you inspire we create” campaign, which creates an open space for ideas, visions, developments and flashes of inspiration and imagination to appeal to Diehl Aviation’s customers.
Leveling up with smart cabin technology
Diehl Aviation’s smart cabin
system, enabled by smart management tools, creates a seamless experience for the passengers, airline crew,
MRO staff and caterers. Through
the smart cabin technology, Diehl
Aviation elevates the passenger
experience during the preboarding
process, and with seamless connectivity and entertainment – particularly
onboard eVTOLs and small aircraft.
“The key to this new approach is connectivity,” van Geenen says. “At Diehl Aviation, the solution technology is called Cabin Area Network System and Services (CANSAS).”
The CANSAS modular system has
the capacity for inflight data acquisition and onboard cloud-sync with
airline operations on the ground.
As van Geenen explains, it supports monitoring as well as predictive and preventive maintenance and logistics operations for the airline. CANSAS can deploy and execute airline-specific applications with over-the-air updates that target all areas of operations, including maintenance, logistics, crew planning and turnaround or dispatch scheduling.
“The cost-saving potential [from] the availability of cabin-related data combined with cloud data analytics and optimized data-driven processes has been demonstrated in numerous collaborative research projects,” van Geenen says.
The CANSAS is the second generation of cabin management solutions by Diehl Aviation; its predecessor is currently flying on all Embraer E2 aircraft. The latest generation CANSAS HPC (High Performance Controller) has been on experimental flights since 2019 and is set to enter service with its first airline partner this year.
A look at Future Cabin
Rendering of Future Cabin
At AIX 2024, the company will be demonstrating this with several impressive exhibits, including full-size cabins. There will be a focus on sustainability, demonstrated, for example, through the Future Cabin display.
In this cabin segment, Diehl Aviation will offer a look at the future of passenger cabins, displayed in a life-size model. The Future Cabin will highlight how bionic structures onboard contribute to weight reduction and the importance of a circular economy, integrating considerations for material recyclability throughout the production process.
Eco Bracket from Diehl Aviation
The Future Cabin will showcase displays, projections and lighting features to enhance passenger comfort. Visitors to the booth will also be able to learn about the potential integration of artificial intelligence through diverse scenarios at the Future Cabin.
“Diehl Aviation’s in-house industrial design department ensures the entire cabin is tailored to individual customer preferences,” says van Geenen, inviting Expo attendees to experience the features of the Future Cabin firsthand. The company will also showcase its Crystal Cabin Awards finalist products, the Wellbeing Zone together with Qantas, the ECO Bracket and the ECO Sidewall.
“Several promising airline retrofit use cases are available today and will be presented at the Diehl Aviation booth on this year’s AIX,” van Geenen says, adding, “Are you ready to smart-up your cabin?”
