Vol 66, No. 7 - International Technology and Engineering Educators ...

e the same). Variations, modifications, or incremental
improvements to an existing process or product is called
evolutionary innovation. Changing the basis of the process
or product itself is called revolutionary innovation, or a
paradigm shift. Electric ranges were evolutionary changes
to cooking on stoves. Microwave ovens were paradigm shifts
to cooking.
Students might consider redesigning the interior of the
jetliner.
Can the students speak to airline professionals or aeronautical
engineers to learn about passenger-loading
processes? Perhaps it may be possible to invite one or
more such individuals into the classroom to talk about
airplane design, operation, loading, and exiting. A visit
to a local airport is also a possibility to observe airline
operations firsthand.
Might information be available from airplane manufacturers?
Perhaps contacting the manufacturers might
disclose relevant information about how airliners are
designed and operated. Is there a college nearby that offers
aeronautical engineering courses where professors and
students might be able to provide additional information?
For instance, why not let the students also consider:
• Having passengers board the plane from multiple entry
points on the plane.
• Redesigning the interior of the jet airliner itself to
accommodate easier passenger access and loading.
• Designing the boarding process for these changes.
How might the considerations above affect the traditional
boarding process now used to convey passengers to the
plane entrance? There was a time when passengers boarded
an airliner by walking directly onto the airplane parking area
and climbed up a steel boarding stair ramp. What might
multiple loading points for boarding passengers mean in
terms of where and how they board the airliner? Does this
mean a redesign of existing airports? Can such massive and
expensive redesigns of airports be minimized through an
elegant solution to this problem?
To further stimulate your thinking, what might happen to
airplane design and operation if the plane was an empty
shell, loaded with separate floors/sections for cargo, luggage,
Are the problems that boarding passengers experience due
to the need to store carry-on bags efficiently; or is it the
need to load the plane from back to front, so folks won’t
block each other if they board in random fashion? Is the
need to check each and every passenger’s ticket the real
problem? It is important to get to the heart of the problem,
the root cause of the time delay.
Information is also likely to be found on the Internet, your
school library, and industry periodicals and magazine
articles. These additional sources should be referenced.
A thorough search of the literature should be conducted.
This will yield some ideas and preliminary recommendations
for changes.
Breaking the Paradigm
Don’t be reticent about pushing the envelope of this
challenge. It should not be restricted to simply improving
an established boarding process (because that is the way
it has always been and everyone assumes it will always
Solving this problem would make many passengers happy.
18 • The Technology Teacher • April 2007