Salon :: Tech & Business

Ask the pilot: Powder-blue seats, mauve curtains and golfing in Siberia. It's the strange, sometimes beautiful language of airliner cabins

Last week, Boeing unveiled a cabin mock-up of its new 747-8, scheduled for rollout in 2010. Those who've seen it are agog over the plane's interior architecture. According to a story from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the mock-up reveals "a world of soft curves, blue mood lighting and a sweeping entryway designed to take the boredom out of flying." Said Klaus Brauer, Boeing's director of customer satisfaction and revenue marketing (there's a yin-yang of a title for you): "The goal is to reconnect people with flying." They'll be doing that, or trying to, with arched ceilings, extra large windows, and the kinds of colors and patterns that, in Brauer's words, "you see when you dream of flying."

All well and good, though hype over the 747-8's innards reminds me somewhat of the grandiose plans for lower-deck lounges and piano bars on the original 747. Besides, once the airlines get hold of it, they'll be cramming in the seats and redecorating to their heart's content. To a large extent, a plane's interior will only be as impressive as its operator allows it to be. When airlines dream of flying, they may not see the same colors that Klaus Brauer does.

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