When I flew in ANA’s 787 in February I made a few observations about the Electronic Blinds that are installed in the aircraft…
…And as we all know the 787’s have these Electrochromism-based “auto-dimming” window things. Here are a few examples of me playing with the windows.
Wide open on the left, slightly dimmed on the right.
Pretty much all the way down…
Black when looked head on.
More pics of the blinds on my photoblog.
But I’ve been concerned about these blinds failing. It seems ANA however has a different beef about them – that they’re not dark enough for their long haul flights as to not removing enough light from the cabin.
ANA’s spokesman Ryosei Nomura says
“For our passengers to have good sleep, we realized that it is important to offer appropriate darkness during flights especially for long haul”
The windows as we know darken, but do not go 100% opaque. This means if it’s shining bright outside, you’re going to get light spillage into the cabin. There are rumours that ANA is working with Boeing to install blinds onto the plane – negating the electronic blinds that have been installed.
Japan Airlines meanwhile have not made the same request for their 787’s – four of which are now flying for the airline. ANA operate 7 787’s in Regional and International Configurations. Compared to the 767’s that are being operated, 21% less fuel was used – which is good for the long and thin routes – making them viable (and scoring better than the stated Boeing efficiency of 20%).
Will they actually install blinds or fix the software? Who knows. It’s just another challenge the 787 project will have to face…