Project Life Wins Crystal Cabin Award

BY Editor

Project Life Wins Crystal Cabin Award

Mar 30,2012 – Hamburg, Germany (Techreleased) – Project LIFE – Lighter, Integrated, Friendly and Eco-efficient Aircraft Cabin – a joint program between Embraer and a consortium of Portuguese companies led by AlmaDesign, has won the Crystal Cabin Award in the Visionary Concepts category. Couro Azul, Amorim Cork Composites, SET and INEGI, the industrial engineering institute of the University of Porto´s School of Engineering, are part of the consortium that made the Concept-Cabin project possible, integrating sustainable, light, and functional solutions for the interior of eco-efficient aircraft.

“We are honored that Project LIFE was chosen as the winner of Crystal Cabin Award,” said Mauro Kern, Executive vice President, Embraer Engineering and Technology. “This prize is the coronation of a long effort led in partnership by Brazil and Portugal, and shows that relevant results can be obtained in innovation for the aerospace sector between our two countries.”

“Project LIFE is the result of an initial desire to demonstrate our capacity and that of Portuguese industry in generating and aggregating new capabilities for innovative and eco-efficient solutions, oriented towards an incredibly demanding sector such as aeronautics,” said José Rui Marcelino, President of AlmaDesign, which coordinated the concept and design that supported the project.

An investment of 1.75 million Euros was made in the project, co-financed in Portugal by the Structural Funds, through COMPETE-QREN. The mock-up of the Concept-Cabin was presented for the first time in 2011, during the International Paris Air Show at Le Bourget.

The Concept-Cabin included equipments that were “invisible” but accessible to passengers, when needed, intuitive lighting, and structures and furnishings made of organic and sustainable materials, eliminating from the cabin materials such as metal and plastic.

Embraer acted as the international consultant for the project, by making its Technological Development team and it Centre for Interiors Validation at  the disposal of the Portuguese entities for the selection of valid solutions for the aeronautical environment.

The Crystal Cabin Award is the only international prize for excellence in innovation for aircraft interiors. Other companies competing for the recognition include Airbus, Diehl, B&E, Lufthansa Technik, and Zodiac Aerospace. The award was announced on March 27, in Hamburg, Germany, during the Aircraft Interiors Expo.