Design Showcase: Crossover Design
Mark T. Masciarotte
11/01/2004

Yacht designers accustomed to working on very large yacht projects often find their first foray into aviation design an eye-opener.

On Winch’s BBJ2, dark mullions and door frames break up the tube and appear to be structural members. (Click image to enlarge)

“First, the owners spend in the neighborhood of forty million dollars, and they only get a green airplane,” said Andrew Winch, referring to the totally stripped interior condition in which large jets are delivered. With ring frames and longitudinal girders bare except for a coating of primer, a green aircraft looks much like a submarine without its interior. In this state, it is not even fit to carry cargo, let alone transport people. Welcome to the world of executive aviation, where it is not uncommon to invest $60 million for an enclosed space that is not quite 12 feet wide and 80 feet long, less than 1,000 square feet.

More and more designers are crossing the line between marine and aviation transportation to serve the needs of clients who own both and want to personalize each one. Winch recently finished his first aviation project, a second-generation Boeing Business Jet, or BBJ2, a modified Boeing 737-800 airliner with 200 square feet of additional floor space. It is the first BBJ2 ever entered into British registry. What he found remarkable – in addition to the cost – were the limitations imposed by the space itself and by the aviation regulations.How professional designers deal with such limitations is in many ways applicable to yacht design. Carefully engineered general arrangements are a must, and full-scale mock-ups, such as the one used for the Winch BBJ2 project, are of inestimable value. Nevertheless, technical requirements aside, designers say the most difficult part of developing any aircraft interior concept is dealing with the tube effect of the fuselage.

Rick Roseman of RWR Designs specializes in private transport-category aircraft but also has created yacht interiors. He explains that because an aircraft is a tube, the stylistic and architectural challenge is to make it interesting. “That means creating angles or curves; anything that can break up the tube feel. Employing ceiling panels that are flat and as wide as possible while still giving us the headroom we need tends to take away from the tube feel as well. We also like to use window plugs and features that interrupt the window line at certain places, even within a large VIP salon,” Roseman said.

Rick Roseman took a much different approach to this BBJ salon for a European client. Note the use of strong horizontal lines. (Click image to enlarge)

Winch agrees, noting that his approach on the BBJ2 was similar to that which he uses for yacht projects. “It’s working out the same things: sight lines and dimensions down to the millimeter. We wanted woodwork, but we could only carry so much of it due to fire-loading, so we had to place it where its appearance was rich and structural to evoke a sense of tradition.” In effect, Winch tricked the eye to make it appear as though the plane had wood frames. “We wanted the interior to look like it’s been hand-built, intrinsically valuable; like it’s been built out of solid materials. We have limestone countertops in the bathrooms that are veneered and edge-banded, so that they look appropriately thick. For us, creating the right visual image was the easiest thing to bring to the airplane market, because it was not what other people were doing.”


There’s a Kind of Hush
The takeoff roll has begun and with it, the noise in the cabin has increased to an annoying level. The copilot flips a switch and, in a couple of seconds, the noise disappears, replaced by a faint hum. You have just been introduced to active noise canceling (ANC), a well-proven technology that holds promise for yachts.

Shipboard noise control is both complex and costly because most structures, connections and noise-attenuating materials needed to reduce the transmission of noise and vibration come with significant weight penalties. This can be particularly disconcerting in the design of high-speed boats, where weight saving is critical. By installing a computer-controlled system that employs low hidden speakers and microphones in each living space, acoustic engineers at Ultra Electronics in Cambridge, England, can negate frequencies that affect passenger comfort. ANC is most effective if other irritating noises – clinking bottles, wave slap or exhaust notes – are eliminated by conventional passive means, thus allowing the ANC system to deal with a defined frequency range and amplitude, such as the intrusive sound of engines in a master suite or main salon. According to company spokesman Rob McDonald, this equipment can be easily adapted for shipboard use.




















Patrick Knowles, a yacht designer who began his design career in aviation and who has 35 aircraft projects to his credit, notes a major difference between boats and planes concerning fire safety issues. “In the aircraft scenario, you’re designing to get somebody from A to B, and the first focus is preservation of life. In yachts you’re not thinking in those terms for absolutely everything,” he said. “In SOLAS or MCA rules, we may have to design around a common firewall serving multiple decks to enable an escape route that can be preserved for a period of time for evacuation,” he said.  The difference, Knowles added, is in such things as material burn and escape times, which in aircraft is rated by the FAA in minutes, not hours.While private or corporate aircraft do not fall under ultra-rigid commercial aviation standards, interior materials in planes are under far greater scrutiny than in yachts. A sample of every interior element must be submitted for a burn test, even if it is just a different color of the same fabric, as different dyes may produce different gases in a fire. And, even if materials are approved by the FAA, the RAA (England) or the CAA (Canada) and many other nations require their own testing. Some elements that seem extravagant on yachts – a lapis lazuli countertop for example – make perfect sense aboard an aircraft because they will not burn. The New York lapidary firm Stephen Lipkins is nearly 100 percent booked supplying semi-precious stone surfaces to private jets.

Patrick Knowles’ design for the owner’s office in a four-engine aircraft currently in refit has all the comforts of a terrestrial room, except that the chair and sofa are fitted with seat belts. Wall panels will diminish the fuselage effect. (Click image to enlarge)

Size-wise, Knowles likens the living area in a plane to a car or an open-class sportboat. “In larger aircraft you have the ability to do some interesting things, but that’s still extremely limited. The aesthetic part of the design is minimal,” he said. 

Still, he sees many similarities between yacht and aircraft design. As with a yacht, an aircraft’s interior must take into account weight distribution, balance, the method of securing furniture and the paths to emergency exits. Some design techniques and tools, such as the elimination of square corners on cabin furniture and secure, positive-action latches for drawers, cupboards and doors, have filtered from aircraft into the design of the modern yacht (seesidebar: “Trickle-Down Effect”). Other issues, such as “headstrike,” the distance between the head of a seated passenger and the nearest wall, are not a concern for the marine industry. (Click image to enlarge)Knowles said one of the biggest differences between yachts and planes is the critical issue surrounding seating on aircraft. “The seat is the absolutely most important design on an aircraft. Beyond the critical ergonomics of the seat itself, it’s your environment, sometimes for many hours at a time, so everything that’s within eyeshot or reach is extremely critical. When you’re on a yacht, you may be sitting for a bit, then leave. But on an aircraft, you’re staring at the finish of everything around you for hours, so fit and finish goes to a totally different level, unlike almost anything you’d find on a yacht.”


Trickle-Down Effect
Many items now found frequently on luxury yachts  were actually introduced aboard aircraft. They include:

- LED zero-heat lighting
- Fiber optics 
- LCD screens
-  Entertainment center operating software
- Fire retardant leathers
-  Flocked, formed-to-fit cabinetry inserts
- Positive-action latches
-  Nomex aluminum honeycomb substrates
















Roseman sums up the task this way: “Our challenge as designers who are working for people who are spending fifteen to forty-five million dollars on an airplane is to make damn sure it doesn’t look like the last one that went out the door.” 

That experience is an invaluable lesson to take back to the world of yacht design.