The new Afterglow business jet retrofit cabin from JPA Design is thought-provoking — both in terms of bringing the latest materials and layouts for cabins from linefit to retrofit, and the promises of its lighting.
Lighting is, after all, important, and in a business jet cabin, where the number of customers with different lighting needs is lower than in a commercial airliner, getting it right on board should be relatively easier.
JPA touts “a sophisticated biodynamic lighting system”, explaining that its “masterfully crafted wall-mounted orb synchronizes with the overall cabin lighting and replicates the solar movements of the sunrise and sunset. The system adjusts to optimal lighting scenarios based on flight time and destination time zone, aligning with passengers’ natural circadian cycles.”
“By choreographing the environmental lighting,” JPA says, “the ‘Afterglow’ cabin facilitates passengers’ physiological adaptation to destination time zones during flight, effectively mitigating the effects of jet lag.”
The Afterglow orb has descended here, in the darkened mode. Image: JPA Design
The concept is a smart one, given what we now know (and JPA helpfully explains) about the impact of blue versus orange light on our sleep patterns, wakefulness and circadian rhythm.
JPA’s Afterglow cabin is very impressive for retrofit, with a signature feature light (left wall). Image: JPA Design
Similar jet lag-busting, adjustment-promoting lighting has been touted for some time in the commercial aviation world. But all too often the promises made by airframers, designers and airline cabin execs don’t live up to in-service reality — not because the systems aren’t installed on the aircraft, but because crew either don’t know how or don’t want to use them.
Too frequently, passengers who have been promised the slowest of gentle wakings with a gradually lightening dawn are jolted from sleep instead by a cabin whose lights are turned from full darkness to full daylight in just a couple of seconds. In another all-too-common scenario, late-night boardings are done in starkest blue-white light, the night-time visual equivalent of a double espresso when it comes to hoping for restful sleep after takeoff.
Lighting temperatures towards the blue spectrum promote wakefulness, which is best to avoid when boarding a red-eye. Image: John Walton
While enough light to see to get to your seat is of course necessary, doing so at a light level commensurate to the flight context is certainly not impossible, especially in business class where the pace of boarding is less hurried. Your author recalls several experiences (not all of which were particularly recent) of late-night or early-morning boarding with atmospheric mood lighting, where suitable levels of illumination were achieved via smart use of lighting washes.
Airlines have made promises of elevated experiences as part of the elevated fares of premium cabins, and they should keep those promises.
Some of these issues can be attributed to complicated crew control units. Your author has discussed the situation with many a crew member, and the user interface on some of the systems used to control lighting could be improved. But part of the problem is that some crew either don’t understand the benefits of the lighting programs, or that, unfortunately, they don’t care. Airlines need to figure out a fix for that.
But that’s not the only area of cabin illumination that could use a bit of a spotlight.
With the growth of mood lighting and the shift to LEDs over the last decade or so, the colour temperature of the lighting within the seat environment is often different to the cabin light. This is usually a mismatch of warmer lighting temperature at cabin level, and colder lighting temperature from the overhead reading light, additional reading lamp, side light or accent light.
What passengers get as a result is an up-close dose of the coldest, starkest blue-white on the spectrum close up to them, negating any benefits of the warmer, orange-white light with which the cabin might be washed. While these additional lights certainly look futuristic and cool in PR snaps, there’s room for more forward thinking about integrating them in the cabin lighting environment as a whole.
This really feels like one of those cabin joining-up issues: seat designers and engineers (and sometimes airlines) collaborate on seats outside the lighting process. Meanwhile, airframers design lighting in conjunction with either an external design agency (which creates scenarios called things like Morning Mist or Sunset Beach) or provide a list of options to a much-pressed airline passenger experience exec who has a million other questions on their mind.
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Featured image credited to JPA Design
