When designing a comfortable aircraft seat a large variety of occupants must be considered. Also, variation of posture is seen as an important factor for creating comfort, and the question is how to translate that in a seat design. Past studies show that, for a comfortable position in an SUV and sedan seat, most of the pressure (50-60% of the total body weight) should be under the posterior one third of the contact area between seat and human, along with 20% in the middle and 10% in the anterior part. Other studies show that a large contact area between human and seat is preferable. It is not simple to design a seat facilitating variation of posture, creating an ideal pressure distribution and large contact area for a large variation in human sizes. For instance, having short lower legs increases the pressure in the front of the seat and having short or long upper legs might reduce the contact area. To overcome these problems in this project an aircraft seat pan was developed that was able to adjust both the height of the front of the seat pan and the length of the seat pan. The question was if this is technically feasible without adding too much weight. Therefore, a project was started to develop and design a mechanism that could be implemented into an aircraft seat. In this paper the background for the development of this seat is described and an evaluation was done technically to see if further technical improvements are needed and some people used the seat to have a first impression on the users’ opinion. The first impressions are promising, but a lot has to be done also on the usability of the controls and further development is suggested. @en

A LIGHT WEIGHT AND COMFORTABLE AIRCRAFT SEAT.
This assignment started fairly broad with only a clear deadline to present a final prototype at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg between 11th and 12th of April 2018. At first the project sounded almost impossible to complete before this time. After discussing the possibilities with Rik Westerink, the starting point was to design an aircraft seat feature for the premium economy class combining manufacturing techniques offered by Aeroworks. This is the reason why the report will start with an initial company and market analysis.

BASED ON ACADEMIC RESEARCH.
Personally I rarely encounter comfort issues on an aircraft. I can sit and sleep comfortably almost anywhere. I guess I am lucky like that. Therefore extensive literature research is conducted to truly understand the elements and developments of comfort and utilize this as an inspirational tool for designing a comfortable aircraft seat for all passengers.

HUMAN, BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY.
The project initiated with the company and market analysis, with contributions by literature research on comfort allowed for new ideas to emerge which are processed into an advanced premium economy seat pan concept. By means of prototyping this concept I had the opportunity to conduct user testing at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg and share my results for the benefit of improving aircraft seating comfort for a large range of passengers.
Hence, what you may expect from this thesis report is a story about my process from the beginning to the end. The result is a research based design development for a low cost aircraft seat pan concept with comfort features tailored to the economy plus and premium economy class for commercial flights.