“Aerofugia Chooses Cabin Luxury Over Utility”

Geely-backed Aerofu­gia has cho­sen cab­in lux­u­ry over func­tionary util­i­ty for its AE200 EVTOL air­craft, with the aim to offer high range car-like com­fort for low-alti­tude flight in Chi­na, reports a press release. 

The com­pa­ny refers to its new design as an “Intel­li­gent Flex­i­ble Smart Cab­in” offer­ing “a first-class expe­ri­ence” that includes “an intel­li­gent light­ing and fra­grance sys­tem.” 

The cab­in was unveiled last week at the Shang­hai Inter­na­tion­al Low-Alti­tude Eco­nom­ic Expo.

Joint­ly cre­at­ed by Wofei Changkong and Fuwei Group, a domes­tic auto­mo­tive parts sys­tem sup­pli­er, the release says, “(The cab­in) adheres to the con­cept of safe­ty, econ­o­my and com­fort by releas­ing a sen­so­ry enjoy­ment of every flight jour­ney, while reshap­ing a new bench­mark for eVTOL inte­ri­or design.”

The release grandil­o­quent­ly boasts, “Start­ing from the sen­so­ry needs of hear­ing, touch, vision and smell, (the cab­in) achieves diver­si­fied func­tion­al inno­va­tions in the dynam­ic cen­tre island, cloud-based seats, sky­light light and shad­ow sys­tems, along­side smart air stew­ards, cre­at­ing a first-class lev­el lux­u­ry.”

AE200 Cab­in Inte­ri­or

It goes on, “A cen­tre island can be flex­i­bly moved between the sec­ond and third rows with one click. The large coun­ter­top space is equipped with a refrig­er­a­tor pro­vid­ing stor­age, arm­rests, charg­ing and oth­er diver­si­fied func­tions, mak­ing the air jour­ney. The elec­tric lift­ing capa­bil­i­ty makes tak­ing and plac­ing items eas­i­er and works in coor­di­na­tion with the seat’s elec­tric arm­rests, to pro­vide more com­fort­able and easy-to-use sup­port and wrap­ping feel­ing. The intel­li­gent soft lumi­nous sur­face per­fect­ly com­bines tech­no­log­i­cal optics with skin-friend­ly touch, bring­ing a sur­pris­ing expe­ri­ence the moment it lights up.”

It does­n’t stop there.

“The entire cab­in is equipped with an intel­li­gent ambi­ent light­ing sys­tem, designed to cre­ate a com­fort­able and relax­ing space immersed in the star­ry sky. This intel­li­gent star­ry sky ceil­ing atmos­phere light­ing allows pas­sen­gers to look up at the bright stars in the clouds, and the dif­fuse light­ing effects of the mul­ti-colour, mul­ti-mode atmos­phere light­ing which com­ple­ment the spa­cious cab­in space, to cre­ate a relax­ing and cosy ‘third space’. Each pas­sen­ger can also inde­pen­dent­ly adjust the over­head read­ing light to cre­ate an exclu­sive com­fort­able light­ing zone in open spaces.” How much of this colour­ful lan­guage is down to trans­la­tion is uncer­tain.

So how does this com­pare to the cab­ins of West­ern-made elec­tric air taxis? 

eVTOL Pas­sen­ger Seats: “Lux­u­ry or Basic Func­tion­al­i­ty?”

Hav­ing sat in var­i­ous exam­ples, for Joby, it is all about util­i­ty. Their seats and sur­round is more like sit­ting on a bus or train. Eve Air Mobil­i­ty, Super­nal and oth­ers have cho­sen a sim­i­lar approach.

Archer, on the oth­er hand, has gone more up-mar­ket inspired by its Chief Design­er, Julien Mon­tousse. In an inter­view with eVTOL Insights back in 2023, Mon­tousse explained, “Mid­night is a com­mut­ing plane that is not only prac­ti­cal and com­fort­able, but also awak­ens the human spir­it. We want our cus­tomer to ful­ly embrace the fly­ing expe­ri­ence. We designed the seat to wrap around your body, so you can feel the move­ment of the craft and become one with the plane.”

He con­tin­ued, “We also wished to cre­ate pri­va­cy for the pas­sen­ger by design­ing a par­tial divider between seats, as well as offer­ing indi­vid­u­al­i­ty. As you step onboard, we intend to project core flight infor­ma­tion into this divider such as your assigned seat, your name, along­side the booked des­ti­na­tion point and take-off time.”

Mon­tousse added, “Then there are the large panoram­ic win­dows. This was a design pri­or­i­ty, so at 2,000 ft the pas­sen­ger can clear­ly engage with the city below.”

Inter­view with Archer Avi­a­tion Vice-Pres­i­dent of Design & Inno­va­tion, Julien Mon­tousse

Sad­ly, the most lux­u­ri­ous cab­in is now no-more. This belonged to Lil­i­um where the seat­ing and inte­ri­or expe­ri­ence was sim­i­lar to a lux­u­ry pri­vate jet. 

Back to the AE200. 

The release con­tin­ues, “The dehu­mid­i­fi­ca­tion mod­ule can intel­li­gent­ly sense and accu­rate­ly adjust the humid­i­ty in the cab­in, keep­ing the air dry and pleas­ant at all times, effec­tive­ly remov­ing mois­ture and avoid­ing odour dis­com­fort. This fra­grance sys­tem pro­vides three smell options allow­ing pas­sen­gers to ‘smell’ the unique scenery out­side the cab­in when fly­ing over moun­tains, rivers, lakes and seas at low alti­tude.” One won­ders what hap­pens when the air­craft flies over a sewage fac­to­ry.

Mean­while, it is pre­sumed that eVTOL com­pa­nies may offer flex­i­bil­i­ty with the lux­u­ry v util­i­ty con­cept. It has been moot­ed, for exam­ple, that a Joby cab­in could be upgrad­ed for Mid­dle East flight routes, where the expect­ed wealth­i­er clien­tele would expect a far more lux­u­ri­ous inte­ri­or. 

For more infor­ma­tion

https://zgh.com/aerofugia/?lang=en

(Top image: Aerofu­gia AE200 Cab­in)

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