What happens when you decide that it’s time to update the interior of your private jet? Specifically, what happens with the materials leftover from your old seats and fixtures?
This is a question commercial airlines are asking themselves as they renovate their aircraft. Many of these companies have begun donating materials that would have been discarded to organizations that can put them to good use. In a dramatic move towards upcycling (or turning waste materials into new products to minimize environmental effects), aircraft materials are being given a second life through innovation and creativity.
Here are a few of our favorite examples:
Working with Russell Brands, an American manufacturer of sports equipment, Boeing is helping to create protective athletic gear out of carbon fiber left over from production of the B787 Dreamliner. The aerospace-grade carbon fiber is very thin and offers extremely high strength for its weight. It provides improved durability over average materials, turning old junk into shoulder pads to protect college football players.
After redesigning 450 aircraft in their B737 fleet, Southwest Airlines found a truly creative way to reuse their leftover leather seat covers — all 80,000 of them! With 32 football fields’ worth of leather, the executives of Southwest looked around and decided to team up with several groups. Among them was Alive & Kicking Kenya, a training program for young adults that has already used the repurposed leather to create over 1,000 soccer balls. They also turned over some of the leather to Life Beads Kenya, a training program for women and people with disabilities to make bags and wallets. Southwest gave more leather to Looptworks, a Portland, Oregon-based upcycler that makes stylish duffel and tote bags and other items from the recycled materials.
The Supersized Salvage television show worked alongside Arizona’s AvAir and Sycamore Aviation to complete a big upcycling project and raise money for a children’s cancer charity. They upcycled every piece of a plane, including the external shell and the interior fixtures, into new, sellable items. Some of the items created were chairs and sofas made from the curved edge of the plane’s wings, children’s toy boxes repurposed from overhead lockers, and nesting boxes for birds that were fashioned out of air ducts. The challenge sold all the pieces for a combined total of £44,000.
A new startup called Stu-Art Aviation Furniture, founded by an airplane engineer, has begun creating unique furniture designs from old airplane parts. Stuart Abbott began making and selling furniture out of his garage about two years ago. His first piece was an office chair crafted from a recycled airline seat, which sold within an hour after being listed online. His designs since have proven to be just as popular.
All of these examples prove that with just a little imagination, leftover aircraft parts can easily be recycled into new products with a life of their own.
Contact L & L International if you need assistance in purchasing or selling a private jet.
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