A DAY IN THE LUFTHANSA HEADQUARTER AT THE FRANKFURT AIRPORT

All team members of this year’s Telekom Fashion Fusion & Lufthansa FlyingLab went to Frankfurt a week ago. Reason was the final check on the prototypes in their actual future environment – a Lufthansa A380 airplane!

5th of December 2017

08:30am – Frankfurt Airport, Terminal 1 – Check in

It’s cold and cloudy outside – but we are beyond excited for the day that we have coming up. It’s a special honor to be visiting the Lufthansa headquarter and to get this kind of access to an A380 airplane in a special hall, where usually only employees do have access to. We’ve met up with all three finalist teams of this year’s Telekom Fashion Fusion & Lufthansa FlyingLab teams that you should already know by now: team LYRA, team Feel.Flight and team SmartChair.

This day is a special day for all of us, as it is the rehearsal day. For the first time, the teams get the opportunity to check on their status of their prototypes in the actual potential future environment of those – an Lufthansa airplane.

Our first station was a hall where we went to on a Bus – quite far from Terminal 1 where all of us met. I think it took us around 20 minutes on the bus. Before we got access to the plane we got some authentic airplane food as we know and love it.

11:00am – Frankfurt Airport – Airbus hall

The A380 is rolling into the big hall and we all look from behind a window. The plane just touched down from Miami, it’s still hot in there and the clearance starts just as we walked in too. First, everyone checked the plane out – I mean, First class, Business Class, the upper deck, the lower deck, even a quick look into the cockpit was possible. It’s not everyday that you can go on a exploration like this!

Straight after that, the teams started to set up their systems and prototypes on the plane. That means for example taking measurements, installing cables, checking on clothes if they actually fit – we spent around 3 hours on the airplane until all questions were responded. Team Lufthansa and Telekom was there all the time to respond all the questions that the teams had. We’ve also set up the „FlyingLab network“ which will be available on the plane when the actual Telekom Fashion Fusion & Lufthansa FlyingLab will take off, direction LAS VEGAS. There will be cameras installed on the plane and if you connect your mobile device to this network, you will be able to receive all images and moving content via your own display.

14:30am – Frankfurt Airport

After more than three hours on the plane, we moved over to the Lufthansa headquarter where the teams were given coaching on how to present themselves in an actual situation of presenting their ideas, concepts, business plans and – most of all – their prototypes. We had the opportunity to see uniforms that Lufthansa had in charge earlier, like the 70ies one in yellow and another one that was the uniform some years ago.

18:00 – Frankfurt Airport

Everyone was happy and left tired but still beyond excited for the next date when everyone gets together. The jury will get together the 18th of december, which is next week already. Then, it will be decided who will attend the flight to CES2018 in Las Vegas. Stay tuned! We will keep you updated.