Lufthansa Technik has shared a glimpse of its new wide-body VIP cabin concept before its full reveal at the Dubai air show.

The MRO services provider said its ‘EXPLORER’ concept is based on current trends in superyachts, which fulfil “two wishes” for their owners: “to take their passengers almost anywhere at any time and to serve them at their destination as an individual hotel and base camp for leisure activities and excursions”.

Lufthansa Technik have chosen the Airbus A330 as the platform for bringing these visions to life.

“In yacht building, multifunctional exploration vessels have now become a class in their own right, and many owners of such vessels also call an aircraft their own,” said Lufthansa Technik’s head of sales VIP & special mission aircraft services Wieland Timm.

“For this fast-growing target group of VIP world explorers, we have therefore now created a flying platform for the first time. Unlike a yacht, however, our EXPLORER aircraft allows passengers to travel to the other side of the globe within hours and set up their own individual base camp for further activities. This opens up completely new possibilities for explorers.”

In cooperation with Diehl Aerosapce, the EXPLORER cabin concept features an integrated projection system for virtual content, which Lufthansa Technik said extends from the window belt to almost the entire cabin ceiling in the multifunctional lounge area. Customers would be able to configure the content individually with the help of a corresponding software solutions from Diehl.

“By integrating the unique projection system of Diehl, we have created an interior that exploits the technology`s full potential for a VIP cabin,” said Lufthansa Technik’s aircraft Interior architect in VIP & special mission aircraft services Michael Bork.  “It is optimized under technical and aesthetic aspects to provide an adequate framework for bringing a variety of atmospheres and virtual worlds to life, changing the overall look of the cabin by a fingertip.”

Another feature of the EXPLORER concept is a floor in the forward fuselage area that extends outward from the parked aircraft to form a veranda, which “opens up the EXPLORER interior to its surroundings, into which passengers can then immerse themselves directly via a platform that can be extended by several metres”, the company said.

In addition to bedrooms and guest rooms, bathrooms, offices, dining and conference areas, the Lufthansa Technik team said it also envisions a ‘Mobility Lounge’ in the aft section of the lower deck, created in cooperation with BRABUS, a manufacturer of luxury automobiles.

The concept also includes a ‘multifunctional room’ in the rear of the aircraft, which “meets the needs of all those world explorers who do not want to do without their usual fitness and wellness facilities on long-haul flights”.

Lufthansa Technik said it will utilize its EXPLORER concept as “an ideas laboratory to further develop and present other ideas and technologies that currently exist only on the drawing board”.