Hamburg Aviation: FAIRcraft - the recyclable aircraft cabin

Aviation companies want to build a recyclable cabin

The cluster organisation Hamburg Aviation sent an interdisciplinary team to the Cross Innovation Lab Klima: experts from various specialist areas of Hamburg's aviation industry worked with creative minds and cradle-to-cradle consultants to develop a research concept for the production of recyclable aircraft cabins.

The challenge

In order to remain sustainable, aviation must reinvent itself and save CO2. Intensive research is already being conducted into new drive technologies and sustainable fuels to achieve this goal. In the Cross Innovation Hub, however, a new topic was considered - the aircraft cabin. The team asked itself how lightweight construction and high demands on materials can be combined with sustainability. How do new, circular business models work?

Output

Sustainable cabin production will require a variety of transformations in the coming years. A suitable production cycle system, a modular design that dispenses with composite materials, for example, and research into suitable materials - new solutions need to be found in a number of areas. The Cross Innovation Lab has taken a first step in this direction: Together with industrial designers Florian Hättich and Sebastian Mends-Cole, a new seat design was created, among other things.

The seat not only has ergonomic advantages, but can also be returned 100% to the production cycle (C2C). Initial analyses show a potential saving of almost 40 tonnes of CO2 in the production of the seats for an A320 alone and a potential saving of over one tonne of CO2 on short-haul flights.

To underline the relevance of the project, a future scenario of aviation in 2030 was developed, which underpins the transformation pressure of the industry with facts. Writer and storytelling expert Dr Claudia Rinke used this to develop a strong narrative that supports the team in applying for research funding for the sustainable aircraft components.

The project, called FAIRcraft, has since been awarded funding from the IFB (GATE - Green Aviation Technologies funding programme). In May 2024, a mock-up of FAIRcraft was presented to the public at the AIX Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg.

More information about FAIRcraft

Creative experts: Florian Hättich (Indeed Innovation), Sebastian Mends-Cole (BFGF Design Studios), Dr Claudia Rinke

People from the corporate side: André Herbst (Autoflug), Christian Keun (CompriseTec), Ann-Christin Krohn (C2C), Gaston Pukies (Capgemini engineering), Sandro Stefani (Ylipson), Karsten Wistuba (C2C), Florian Zager-Rode (Diehl)

Format & method

In the Cross Innovation Lab, companies come together in changing constellations over a period of six weeks to work together on product developments in a stimulating environment. Experts from the creative industries are specifically involved in the process.

• Field research: At the beginning, the challenges of the companies are analysed in a new kind of depth in collaboration with creative professionals - and their fresh perspective from the outside.
• Workshop phase: In a total of four workshop/lab days, the companies develop new solutions together with selected creative professionals.
• Feedback loops: Between the labs, a concept review takes place with all participating companies in order to further improve the products through joint feedback and exchange.

In the iterative work process, companies develop new products or product adaptations in a significantly reduced amount of time.