This Is the Corner Office at 30,000 ft That Could Kill First Class

Even as companies are putting mini-apartment cubicles in offices so you never have to go home when working on projects, B/E Aerospace has figured out how to put a corner office in the sky.

The company's new Breakout concept will totally ruin you for flying in Economy, traditional Business class seating, or even 99% of today’s First class cabins. And, rather than designed around the 1% luxury lifestyle, it was developed to address the needs of busy executives.

Glenn Johnson, Director of B/E Aerospace’s Advanced Design Group describes the concept which we can’t even categorize as an aircraft seat any more: “The goal is to design for the individual requirements of premium travelers. We set out to remove the compromise of using a seat for every travel function.”

Breakout has separate functional areas for all the different things you might want to do on the plane: work, play, and rest.

On one side of the office, there is a rest and dining area, with a comfortable seat to enjoy meals and entertainment.

The ottoman across, makes room for a guest to sit across the separate dining table and chat.

On the other corner, there is a full-function desk which lets you sit upright at your own personal command centre to finish that presentation you need before landing, at ease.

When you need to sleep, the Breakout converts to a full suite, with full-width lie-flat bed, so you get a quality rest before landing.

“The customer can get out of their seat, move around and is not restricted to the same, small surface where meals are taken. There is 35% more space in which to place things,” Johnson states. That includes a large area to keep standard-sized onboard baggage to hand, but out of the way.

For now, it's only a concept and not quite ready to fly, but the Breakout multi-function suite was selected as a CORE77 Honoree design award candidate vying for the 2015 Community Choice Prize in transportation.

While you wait for airlines to react to this seating disruption, you can tour tomorrow’s flying corner office in this video:

https://youtu.be/0dHFNE_QIy0

Some might say that this level of functionality doesn’t fit the typical airline’s premium cabin—and it doesn’t—but no one thought that an airline would put a full apartment in the sky either.

The difference is that the Breakout could revolutionize in-flight productivity for the few that can afford it. That makes this product concept attractive to a much larger passenger base, and airlines should take notice. For many premium passengers, productivity in-flight is critical on very long-haul routes, which is where we would expect the Breakout corner office to fly.