Feature Story

New window technology lets passengers and crew manage the light by pushing a button. Boeing engineers are doing extensive testing to make sure the system works just as designed.

787 Dreamliner windows offer new level of control

By Bernard Choi

With the touch of a button, passengers on Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner, can adjust the amount of outside light streaming into the cabin.

BOEING/Bernard Choi

Passengers onboard the 787 Dreamliner will be able to press a button on a controller like this to manage the amount of light streaming into the cabin.

Instead of raising a solid window shade that cuts off both light and view, passengers will have a controller to lighten or darken the window. Even when the window is fully dark, passengers will be able to see the world passing by.

"Passengers will have more control over what they see outside," said Ali Mawani, one of the Boeing systems engineers who is testing the software in a Seattle lab to make sure it works just as designed when the 787 enters commercial service.

Boeing teamed up with PPG Aerospace and Gentex Corporation to provide this new window to the world. Aside from its size -- 19 inches tall and 65 percent larger than the industry standard - the window has a layer of gel (about the thickness of a pencil lead) sandwiched between two thin pieces of glass. When an electric current is applied to the gel, it causes a chemical reaction and it begins to darken.

We simulate airplane behavior ... so anything that can go wrong, that's what we're testing for," Diana Bonilla, Boeing systems engineer.

"Electrodes will be placed on the side of the windows," explained Sean Sullivan, the senior manager of the 787 cabin systems. "They will be hidden from view from the passenger. That's how we apply the current across the gel from one side of the window to the other."

See all of the new design features of the 787 Dreamliner

The windows are all networked together so flight attendants also will have a new level of control. From a computer panel, the crew can control an individual window, a section or all of the windows.

For example, attendants may want to darken the windows when the cabin lighting system is set to "night", or clear all windows when the plane arrives at its destination in the morning.

BOEING

The windows onboard the 787 Dreamliner are 19-inches tall. They're 65 percent larger than the industry standard.

Sean Sullivan and his team are trying to anticipate issues that might arise once the planes are in commercial service. Engineers are subjecting the windows and the controllers through all kinds of computer-generated scenarios, such as a power interrupt.

"We simulate airplane behavior," said Boeing systems engineer Diana Bonilla. "We're testing to find out what can go wrong."

Going forward, the engineers are also trying to figure out if they can add even more functionality to the system, such as adding flight data to automate the windows.

"For instance, if you're landing or below 10,000 feet, you want the window clear," said Mawani. "If we can automate the windows by just sensing the aircraft's altitude, it makes it that much easier on the attendant, one less step."

It is one less step, and one more innovative feature on the 787 Dreamliner.

Last Updated: June 1, 2010 | Comments (1)