eVTOLs: “Small Cabin Space, but Speed and Grace”

An inter­est­ing fea­ture was post­ed on Linkedin last week, writ­ten by David Ison PhD. He con­fronts a prob­lem that many have not yet con­sid­ered. Is the eVTOL cab­in space too small, lead­ing to a poten­tial claus­tro­pho­bic con­di­tion for some pas­sen­gers? 

He offers the receipts to make his point.

Ison writes, “In prac­ti­cal terms, a cab­in width of 1.8–2.2 metres means each seat may span approx­i­mate­ly 0.9 metres (35 inch­es) includ­ing arm­rests and side-walls, but the walls are close and the aisle (if any) is nar­row. A cab­in height of 1.6–1.8 meters means most adult pas­sen­gers can­not stand upright. And a length of 2.5–3.5 metres may fit only two rows of seats with min­i­mal lob­by or stor­age space.”

An eVTOL cab­in lay­out

He con­tin­ues, “When com­pared with a typ­i­cal air­line econ­o­my cab­in, for exam­ple, a nar­row-body such as the Air­bus A320 (cab­in width ~3.7 m, height ~2.1–2.3 m, length ~27.5 m), the dif­fer­ence in vol­u­met­ric and spa­tial expe­ri­ence is dra­mat­ic.”

While Ison focus­es on cramped con­di­tions, a fear of heights could also become a dif­fi­cul­ty for some pas­sen­gers giv­en the close prox­im­i­ty of the large air­craft win­dows offer­ing spec­tac­u­lar views below. There are some peo­ple who rarely fly due to a vari­ety of issues. The same ones may nev­er ven­ture in to an eVTOL.

Hav­ing sat in the Joby S4, for exam­ple, an imme­di­ate feel­ing could be the raw­ness, even the naked­ness of tak­ing off, as if in a small heli­copter. Yet, humans are psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly flex­i­ble and can attune to a new expe­ri­ence very quick­ly. An eVTOL is a dif­fer­ent beast to your stan­dard air­line flight and should be viewed as such. 

Key Claus­tro­pho­bic Trig­gers

: No stand­ing head­room through­out out the flight.

: Imme­di­ate Wall prox­im­i­ty with reduced lat­er­al space.

: Lim­it­ed abil­i­ty to shift posi­tion or stretch.

: Con­strained entry/exit through small doors.

: Visu­al con­fine­ment from small­er win­dows and close walls.

Ison con­cludes: “The cab­in space offered by today’s designs is mod­est, arguably more akin to a pre­mi­um car or lim­ou­sine than a stan­dard air­lin­er… This issue deserves can­did dis­cus­sion rather than mar­ket­ing euphemisms. (eVTOLs) offer gen­uine advan­tages in speed and point-to-point rout­ing, but pas­sen­gers should expect an expe­ri­ence that feels more con­fined than econ­o­my-class fly­ing and poten­tial­ly more restric­tive than pre­mi­um ground trans­porta­tion.”

Hope­ful­ly, com­mer­cial flights will begin in the Mid­dle East next year. eVTOL com­pa­nies like Archer and Joby can then gain vital pas­sen­ger feed­back. It is unlike­ly cab­in space can or will increase, cer­tain­ly in the short term, but the speed, ease and grace that such air­craft can offer pas­sen­gers — par­tic­u­lar­ly for 10 to 15 minute trips — cramped con­di­tions may be quick­ly accept­ed.

News Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/compact-cabins-elevated-aspirations-claustrophobia-evtol-ison-phd-n2amc/

(Top image: Joby Avi­a­tion)

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