Qantas long-haul Project Sunrise has raised serious concerns about potential jet lag and the overall well-being of passengers. In response, Qantas has come up with unique and customizable cabin lighting inspired by the colours of the Australian landscape and grounded in science. These lights will feature on ‘Project Sunrise flights’ to help minimize jetlag and improve customer wellbeing.
The design is a result of more than 150 hours of testing in the Airbus Customer Definition Centre in Hamburg where representatives from Qantas, Airbus, the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre, and the Caon Design Office created and tested hundreds of lighting patterns and sequences in an Airbus A350 cabin mock-up.
Commenting on the scientifically informed lighting design, the chief executive, of Qantas, Cam Wallace said: “This is another critical component of the preparation for Project Sunrise flights, which will connect Australia’s east coast non-stop with London and New York. These world-first flights have allowed us to work with experts and build on our experience of long-haul flying to rethink the inflight experience with a focus on customer wellbeing and combating the effects of jetlag.”
He further stressed the importance of light cycles and brightness in setting the body clock. “Combined with the design of the cabins, specialized meal planning, and the movement program, this unique lighting sequence will help improve our customers’ comfort in the air and minimize their jetlag when they arrive at their destination,” Wallace further added.
“The lighting workshops followed more than five years of cabin design with Qantas to maximize customer wellbeing inflight,” said David Caon, industrial designer. “Aircraft lighting doesn’t cross the mind of most travelers but the external light cycle of night and day has more impact on our circadian rhythm and the impact of jetlag than any other factor.”
Qantas and the Charles Perkins Centre last year released preliminary findings on how to potentially reduce the impacts of jetlag by reshaping the inflight travel experience, based on world-first research conducted during test flights for Qantas’ Project Sunrise program.
Based on state-of-the-art modeling of circadian rhythms, the Charles Perkins Centre advised the optimal spectral irradiances for light to promote circadian adaption, sleep, and wake. These were implemented and tested throughout the lighting workshops in Hamburg and adjusted for eye comfort and appearance.
The Charles Perkins Centre provided the ideal spectral irradiance for wake and sleep and these workshops were about crafting a beautiful ambiance that was guided by science and exceptional design principles.
Using the unique light of the Australian landscape and contemporary interior design as inspiration, the team has curated an immersive suite of more than 12 different lighting scenarios and transitions to help travelers best adjust to their destination time zone and improve their inflight well-being.
Dr Sveta Postnova from the Charles Perkins Centre said “It’s great to see circadian science being translated into practice. The new lighting scenarios for the A350 were developed to optimize the circadian effects of light at different times during flights while accounting for the light appearance, ambiance, safety, and hardware requirements on board. It was a truly collaborative effort bringing together the Charles Perkins Centre, Qantas, Airbus, and Caon Design Studios.”
Joost van der Heijden, senior vice president & global head, of marketing, at Airbus Commercial Aircraft, said “The A350 Airspace cabin has been designed to provide passengers with the best possible flight experience. This includes more personal space, the quietest cabin in the sky, the highest air quality, and full connectivity throughout. And the unique and innovative state-of-the-art LED lighting system offers over 16 million colour combinations, enabling airlines to fully customize their offerings.”
The lighting sequence will be tailored to help passengers adjust to their destination time zone before they set foot on the ground.
The trial has produced a series of 12 unique lighting scenes specifically for the Project Sunrise flights, including:
- “Awake”: Broad-spectrum, blue-enriched lighting to help customers adjust to the destination time zone and help them stay awake; a softer version is available for the crew to choose from based on cabin mood and ambiance.
- “Sunset”: An immersive transition from a daytime mode into the dark that moves through the colours of a sunset into a night sky with moonlight and a slow cloud effect to relax customers and prepare them for sleep.
- “Sunrise”: Dynamic lighting effective for a transition from night to day that replicates an Australian sunrise rolling from the front of the cabin to the rear.
The main cabin will also have Welcome and Farewell lighting scenes for boarding and disembarking, as well as tailored scenes for taxi, take-off and landing, and sleep.
The Wellbeing Zone will feature soft blue-enriched light creating a daytime sky effect with slow-moving clouds during ‘the day’ to keep customers awake, and a moonlight-inspired scene with reflections of water rippling to relax customers who spend time in the Wellbeing Zone while the rest of the cabin is in a dark period.
In a first for the airline, the six enclosed First Suites will offer a fully customizable lighting sequence for their environment which means customers can choose the time zone they want to be on for the duration of the flight.
Every part of the Project Sunrise A350 cabins was specially designed for Qantas and creating this tailored lighting sequence is one of the final pieces of the puzzle.
Qantas has taken full advantage of this unique lighting system to create science-based specific effects that will help passengers adapt to the changing time zones. This will contribute to their well-being on the world’s longest commercial flights. This project is the ultimate endorsement of the A350 as the world’s Long-Range Leader.”