Designing the regional aircraft fleet of tomorrow
By WP BrandStudio
Long overlooked, short-haul air travel will benefit from breakthrough designs and technologies.
There’s a saying in Japanese: Ichi-go, ichi-e. Roughly translated, it refers to the importance of cherishing every encounter. Family, friends and travel, perhaps. But—if in your travels—reaching your destination involves a flight on an aging, cramped and noisy plane, putting the concept into practice gets much more difficult.
Many journeys begin and end with a short-haul flight—a quick trip made on an aircraft designed to transport less than 100 passengers to or from smaller hubs. But with outdated aircraft and a pilot shortage, regional air travel has suffered sagging profits, so airlines have been trimming back the service. In the five years ending in 2018, 77 smaller U.S. airports lost half or more of their regional service routes. Thirty-two of those have lost all service.
But scaling back regional flights isn’t sustainable. Regional aviation creates vital connectivity between communities and markets. If a community loses that service, its access to the national and global economy is impaired. And its continuing development can suffer as well.
Chief executives often cite proximity to direct flights when moving headquarters to a new city. The economic benefit of regional air service alone is estimated at $134 billion a year. That number would likely double if it included economic development impacts.
Facing lower demand, aircraft manufacturers have put regional jet design on the back burner—opting to focus on larger commercial aircraft while continuing to deliver legacy products to the regional segment. But the time is ripe for innovation. The U.S. is at a crossroads where existing regional aircraft are starting to be retired, as demand for connectivity nonetheless continues to grow. Mitsubishi Aircraft, a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Group, predicts airlines worldwide will need more than 5,100 regional jets over the next two decades. As of 2010, 63% of all U.S. airports are served only by regional jets.
In refreshing a regional jet fleet, enhanced business performance will be critical for airlines to justify investment in new products. That translates to a fine balance between enhanced aircraft performance to reduce operating costs, and improvements in customer experience to drive recurring revenue.
“In regional aircraft today, the focus tends to be on cost discounting more than it is on revenue generation, and it should be both,” said Alex Bellamy, chief development officer at Mitsubishi Aircraft. “It should be about generating revenue through premium services and a great passenger experience as well as controlling cost.
Another view of space
There’s a reason today’s regional jets often fail to impress passengers. “All of the regional jets currently on the market are modifications or evolutions of older aircraft,” said Steve Haro, vice president of global marketing and strategy at Mitsubishi Aircraft. But the company wanted to start with a “clean-sheet design,” he said.
The result is the Mitsubishi SpaceJet, an aircraft that focuses on “how you feel within the space you’re given.” The Japanese have four words for space, Haro noted, including their own word—ma—for negative space, something Mitsubishi’s designers made sure to integrate into the SpaceJet. If you’ve ever visited a traditional Japanese garden, you’ll understand how it can create space for reflection, even within small confines. The calming effect is created through careful attention to detail and judicious use of ma.
The SpaceJet has the widest, tallest cabin of any regional aircraft on the market. The cabin width also allows for the most spacious economy class seat, at 18.5 inches across. There are no dreaded middle seats. The tall cabin height—an astonishing six feet, eight inches—is achieved with a clever design trick. The cargo hold is located behind the seat deck rather than in its usual location underneath the main cabin, returning that space to the passenger.
The SpaceJet will also feature the most overhead space in its class, with room for one standard-sized roller back per person, ensuring that passengers will not have to check their luggage at the gate. This cuts the stress of a missed connection due to a slow gate-check at the destination. It also will save airlines time and money in their transitions between flights and allow for efficient deplaning—a benefit for both the business and the passengers.
When designing for the passenger experience, small things matter. “We know from research that people perceive space from their shoulders to their eyes,” Haro said. “You can have lots of legroom, but if a sidewall is encroaching on your forehead”—as is the case with many common regional jets—“you’ll feel that you don’t have personal space.” With SpaceJet, people perceive a massive roomy cabin because of the dropped floor.
This revolutionary design resulted from extensive “journey mapping” for both the customer and the crew that also took the airline’s bottom line into consideration. The roomier galleys are a respectful signal to hardworking airline employees, but they’re also an acknowledgement that “happy employees deliver a better experience,” Haro said.
Cost-efficiency is also crucial for regional jets. Fuel prices are volatile, and a spike can endanger the economic viability of a short-haul route. Thanks to a more fuel-efficient geared turbofan engine with lower maintenance costs, the SpaceJet has achieved double-digit operating cost reductions over existing regional jets.
Haro notes ichi-go, ichi-e as a favorite Japanese principle—one he believes applies to this new design. In essence, when it comes to the SpaceJet, the journey is the destination.
Full speed ahead
Regional airports clearly need more comfortable, cost-efficient jets, and airlines face a major branding challenge putting passengers on outdated planes. For passengers, the only viable alternative to short-haul air travel is typically an hours-long drive or bus ride.
Yet additional solutions may be out there for regional travel. Major urban corridors someday may be linked by high-speed rail. Driverless vehicles may make long road trips more bearable. And there’s still the dream of air taxis, which would transport people short distances in vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicles.
But though high-speed rail has taken hold in Europe and some parts of Asia, many rail projects in the U.S. have stalled due to cost, legal and regulatory issues that may take decades to resolve. As for air taxis, recent technological advances have led to some inspiring test flights of electric-powered vehicles. But it will be many years before this becomes an economically viable form of mass transportation.
The aviation sector will always be critical to connecting cultures and supporting the global economy. But the future must involve a cost-efficient, sustainable aircraft that doesn’t come at the expense of passenger experience. The Mitsubishi SpaceJet meets those needs today, and offers the next generation of regional aircraft that the industry has sorely needed.
Read more from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group:
– Solving aviation’s biggest challenges
– People are backing science and tech to build a better world
–How one Japanese philosphy can help drive the future of clean, affordable energy
