São Paulo – Embraer and the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo (Poli-USP) inaugurated on Thursday (5), in São Paulo, the Centre for Comfort Engineering (CEC) to develop aircraft to make flights more comfortable for passengers.
Within the CEC, which was built at the Poli unit, on the University Campus, there are two models of full scale fuselages in the Embraer 170/190, called E-Jets by the aircraft maker. One of them is used to simulate the thermal conditions the aircraft is subjected to.
The other model, with 30 seats, is installed in a pressure chamber that simulates flight conditions. In the model, it is possible to simulate the pressure, cabin humidity, sound, vibration, temperature and lighting. With this information, it is possible to evaluate the impacts of the flight on passengers and to study what can be done to make the aircraft more comfortable.
According to Embraer, this is the first laboratory of the kind outside Europe. “More and more, passenger experience in flight will be a decisive factor for the success of our aircraft on the global market,” said the executive vice-president for engineering and technology at Embraer, Mauro Kern.
The CEC is part of the Cabin Comfort Project, which started being developed in 2006. Apart from USP and Embraer, the initiative also included the Federal Universities of Santa Catarina (UFSC) and São Carlos (UFSCar), the State of São Paulo Research Foundation (Fapesp) and the Studies and Projects Funding Body (Finep). The project received investment of R$ 14.9 million.
*Translated by Mark Ament
