Colibri Aero and J&C Aero have introduced cargo containers for passenger cabins of wide-body aircraft made by Boeing and Airbus.
These cargo containers permit a reconfiguration of an Airbus or Boeing cabin in about a day, meaning that a passenger aircraft can be quickly modified for the carriage of freight.
The cargo containers are available in five different sizes and are suitable for passenger cabins of Airbus A330, A340, Boeing 767 and B777 models. Helpfully, each is equipped with its own smoke detector. The manufacturers say that loads in transit will require the supervision of the cabin crew.
A single container is able to transport up to 850 kilogrammes of commercial cargo, meaning that an A330 cabin can be configured to accommodate up to 36 containers.
The two companies are now looking to extend the concept to other types of aircraft.