Story ID: 338 Mecaer
MAG brings I-Feel Cabin to Fixed-wing Fleet
By: James Wynbrandt
Caption: STC for Bell 505 Jet Ranger X cabin expected next spring.
Word Count: 500
Mecaer Aviation Group’s In-Flight Entertainment Enhanced Lounge (I-Feel) has brought smart device-controlled cabin management and entertainment to many executive helicopter cabins, and here at NBAA 2017 the Italian company is introducing the I-Feel Generation Three infotainment system to airplanes. At its display (Booth N2121), Mecaer is showcasing a system for fixed-wing aircraft that incorporates Wi-Fi, moving maps, ambient light controls, audio/video functions, and electrochromic window shading. Rotorcraft installations feature large storage cabinets that can house retractable monitors, and a Speech Interference Level Enhanced Noise System (Silens) with limousine-style privacy window that further quiets the cabin, allowing passengers to converse without using headsets.

Mecaer, which is developing the interior for Bell’s 505 Jet Ranger X, also announced here in Las Vegas it expects FAA approval for the Bell 505 interior STC in April or May next year, with EASA and Transport Canada certification to follow closely. The Mecaer interior is an upgrade from Bell’s standard Jet Ranger X cabin, with deluxe appointments that include leather-wrapped flight control boots; new interior panels, headliner and overhead passenger service unit; and adjustable interior mood and reading lighting. Utilitarian touches include coat hooks, cup holders, stowage pockets and smart device holders, while company or personal logos can be stitched into headrests or engraved into the door thresholds. Additional storage cabinets replacing the aft center seat are another option. Mecaer plans to unveil the interior with the launch customer when the STC is approved.

Customers can choose the options—and level of luxury—they want. “What I’m being told by my counterparts at Bell is that well over half the customer base of the 505 has asked” for an upgraded interior, said Grayson Barrows, Mecaer’s director of marketing and sales for cabin comfort systems.

Mecaer will also provide the standard and Grandeur luxury interior for the super-medium Bell 525 Relentless. A mock-up is on display at Bell Helicopter (Booth N4033, SD16). Silens sound reduction technology and seamless Wi-Fi pairing to any smart device via the I-Feel system will be standard, while electrochromic window technology for passengers, a variety of seating configurations including wraparound divan, and swiveling captain chair seats are among the options. A small lavatory will be certified “eventually,” Barrows said.

The first fly-by-wire commercial helicopter, the Bell 525 also features the first fully integrated touchscreen avionics suite in a rotorcraft in the Garmin G5000H flight deck. Mecaer, which provides landing gear systems as one of its four business lines, will also design and build the landing gear for the 525, and the company is displaying “the full gamut of fixed-wing landing gear systems” at its booth, Barrows said.

Also being shown is Mecaer’s Leonardo AW139 interior, certified this year, incorporating a capsule housing for a sliding door. It sounds like a simple upgrade, Barrows said, but “it is a significant change in design, and achieving equal sound levels with a sliding-door aircraft is much more challenging than with a hinged door.”