September 2008
Sometimes designers set out to create something gorgeous; other times, it's a technological breakthrough.
Often, though, their goals are more mundane, like finding a way to shave an inch off the width of the back of the cheapest seat in an aircraft.
"It doesn't sound like much," admitted Marc Newson, the industrial designer who tackled that problem when planning the cabin of the Airbus A380 double-deck superjumbo jet for the Australian airline Qantas.
"But it's mind-bogglingly difficult, and that extra inch makes a big difference.
It could save someone from having to bend their knees throughout a long-haul flight."
Slimming down the cheap seats was one of innumerable design challenges Mr. Newson's team faced in its work on the Qantas A380, which is being prepared for its first flight from a factory in Toulouse, France, to Sydney.
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