Design for comfort: Aircraft interiors design assessment through a human centered response model approach

In a highly competitive global aviation environment, European regional aircraft requires continuous improvements in cabin comfort. This paper describes the design for comfort process proposed in an industrial research project, aimed at the definition of innovative design approaches to measure the affective impact on a potential user when living in and interacting with the cabin. The study is performed in the framework of CASTLE (CAbin Systems design Toward passenger welLbEing). CASTLE is a project granted under the Horizon 2020 EU's research programme in the framework of the Clean Sky 2 initiative. Requirements and recommendations for the comfort aspects to be taken into account to develop a regional aircraft's cabin were provided by Leonardo's Aircraft Division. The methodological approach is set up in a Virtual / Augmented Reality Environment for the definition of a Human Centered Response Model for the design for comfort of regional aircraft interiors. In this context, special attention has been paid to the improvements that can be brought to the cabin interiors, and specifically to the experience that passengers can live in the aircraft of the future. The main objective of the project is to conceive, develop, prototype and test cabin interiors solutions following a HCD (Human Centered Design) methodology. The paper analyzes the approach toward the definition of the design for comfort according to the considered cabin items and design requirements. The proper comfort metrics are selected and linked to an experimental protocol analysis for their assessment. A Virtual Reality environment has been set up to support the comfort assessment in aircraft cabin interiors, from their preliminary design.