Can you imagine what aviation will look like in 100 years? Our forefathers certainly never expected Concorde to jet across the Atlantic at twice the speed of sound or a man to set foot on the moon. Can you imagine what the future of flight could bring?
Find out at the “BA 2119: Flight of the Future” exhibition. You can catch it at the Saatchi Gallery in London through August 26, 2019 as part of British Airways’s centenary celebration.
Louise Evans, Director of External Communications for British Airways, says it is “really important to see where aviation is going and where British Airways is going to be in the future.”
So, the airline hired Foresight Factory, a London-based research company that looks at consumer trends data, analysis and prediction. The task: determine what aviation would look like in the future.
Bringing Aviation to Life through Art
British Airways BA2119 Flight of The Future event in collaboration with the Royal College of Art at Saatchi Gallery in London,
(Picture by Nick Morrish/British Airways)
Post-graduate students at the Royal College of Art were asked to bring results of the research to life. The students toured the airline’s operations facilities, learning as much as they could about how things worked. Then, they took that learning and started thinking about how to improve things for future travelers.
They looked at the future of luggage to make it easier for passengers to move their luggage. They studied seat design and methods to make flight more comfortable and less exhausting. It was a challenging and exhilarating exercise.
What Artificial Intelligence (AI) features will make things more efficient for crew and passengers in 50 years? Will tomorrow’s jets have algae walls to cleanse the air in flight? Visit the exhibition and find out.
Come Fly with Me
The highlight of the exhibition is a one-of-a kind, full-motion, virtual reality experience called “Fly.” Built by award-winning VR creators and an Oscar-winning practical effects team, Fly enables visitors to become a time-traveling pilot, from the earliest imaginings of Leonard da Vinci and his ornithopter, to the Wright Brothers’ success on Kitty Hawk, to that first inaugural passenger flight to Paris. Users will experience Concorde, the brand new A350 and the imagined flight of the future.
Tickets for Fly must be purchased in advance. You can buy your tickets here.
