I look at the boarding pass and sighed - another commuter jet. They’re claustrophobic agony. You can’t stand up. If you’re six feet or more and have a window seat, you have to bend your head to the interior curve of the fuselage. And for all of us who fly, we know commuter jets are as prevalent as the bigger planes, no joy themselves but ususally better.
So I was completely surprised when I boarded a Comair flight in Cinncinati last night for the trip back to Boston. It was brand new CRJ-900 jet which was spacious and you could stand up in the aisle (I’m six feet). Comair just took a delivery of 12 planes in September and they could redefine commuter jet travel. It even had a 12-seat first class section. Legroom was decent and I’d have to say I prefer it to most big passeneger jets. A lot depends on the load factor and this flight was only three quarters full. And it didn’t hurt that it that the interior was sparkling and new
There might be a catch, though. According to the flight attendant, the CRJ-900 could be configured with more than 90 seats. The one I was on had 76 seats. Bombardier, the manufacturer, says the aircraft has an "86-seat interior." The addition of 10 more seats could convert the plane I was on last night back into bad old commuter jet misery. Three cheers for Comair.
Almost every automaker has had to 'pick a side' when it comes to alternative fuel options and ways to divest from a reliance on gasoline. Fiat is looking to back compressed natural gas or liquid propane as an interim solution.
Plastic may not be the most beloved of materials to the more environmentally minded, but Plasti 2012 aimed to mold a different opinion of the material in people's minds.
The rare earth element market has become steadily more rational, and new sources coming online will continue to reduce costs. Still, it is unlikely that prices will drop to their former lows.
Against a backdrop of mounting product complexity and a need to keep a lid on development costs, companies are recognizing a need to make simulation a more integral part of the design process. In response, vendors in the CAD world are building out CAE functionality as part of their CAD suites while simulation vendors are building tighter integrations to leading CAD tools. Keith Meintjes, Ph.D., Practice Manager, Simulation and Analysis at CIMdata, Inc., joins Design News CAD Editor Beth Stackpole in this radio program to explore the new face of integrated CAD and CAE, how companies are benefitting from this tighter partnership between platforms, and how integrating CAE earlier in the development cycle pays off in optimized product designs.
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
8 
