The Crystal Cabin Awards – the independent awards for cabin innovations and on-board products – has received a record number of submissions.

In total, 105 concepts from 21 countries have made it to the shortlist, with entrants including airlines, suppliers, universities and major aircraft manufacturers. Here are just some of the innovative entries submitted this year.

The cabin of the future

Flexible cabin configuration entries include the Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects Retractable Aircraft Cabin that allows whole rooms, from restaurants to spas, to be inserted into the aircraft cabin during ground handling, and the Airbus ‘Cabin Vision 2030’ that equips the cabin with more flexible seating and sleeping configurations along with exchangeable modules.

Acumen’s ‘The Room’, a luxurious business class for All Nippon Airways, combines modern Japanese style with features such as the widest seat in its class so far, and Virgin Atlantic’s ‘The Loft’ features mood lighting in the entry area as passengers board, transforming the area to an exclusive lounge and bar for premium class passengers during the flight.

Economy comfort

Economy class entries feature exciting new concepts, too. Hamburg-based Heinkel presents a mechanism for rotating aircraft seats to create a ‘Flex Lounge’ with four passengers facing each other, and Adient adds an extension/retraction mechanism to the seating row behind the partition separating Business Class from Economy, often used by families, creating a large single surface for parents and children to lay down together.

In-flight entertainment

In the in-flight entertainment category, JetBlue is offering its ‘Multi-Screen Experience’, facilitating binge-watching and surfing in parallel on all devices. Flymingo NEXT from Moment goes beyond classic in-flight entertainment – in addition to wireless streaming, the hardware integrates ‘Internet of Things’ technologies for the crew, indicating, for example, seat occupancy and baggage locker use.

You can find out more about the Crystal Cabin Awards here.