Research Report: Aircraft Design Development

Research Report: Aircraft Design Development
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Research Report: Aircraft Design Development
Study Design
This is a qualitative study. Woods (2011) pointed out that qualitative study is used to explore issues, to understand phenomena and answer questions, and to make sense of unstructured data. Qualitative research highlights the significance of looking at variables within the natural setting (Key, 2008). In this research, qualitative design is selected since it will enable the researcher to exhaustively explore the issue; that is, whether today’s aircraft design development focuses on improving customer experience for passengers, and efficiencies for airlines such as fuel-efficiencies and efficiencies in terms of seat-capacities.
Population and Sample
The population for this research study comprises airline passengers and airline managers. Air travelers in four different cities will be asked questions relating to how the design of the airplane serves to improve their experience, comfort and satisfaction onboard. It is worth mentioning that several airlines have updated their aircrafts and others continue to update theirs to include such things as new galleys, satellite television and access to power for each passenger, LED cabin lighting, as well as in-seat video (James, 2006). Other features designed to improve customer satisfaction are more leg room, larger capacity overhead bins, new lavatory designs, as well as increased under-seat room for carryon luggage (Kollau, 2013).
Other than passengers, airline managers would also be interviewed. They would be asked questions with regard to the efficiency of airplanes. These would be managers in the following key airlines: Delta, JetBlue, U.S. Airways, British Airways, and American Airlines. A sample size of 25 people will take part in this research: 5 would be airline managers from the aforementioned airlines while 20 would be airline passengers. The 25 project participants will be selected through probability sampling as the airline passengers and airline managers who will be picked to participate will have the same probability of being selected. Probability sampling is advantageous as it assures that the sample is actually representative and the errors for the sampling can be estimated (Key, 2008).
Variables and Measures
Aircraft design: this is the independent variable (IV). This is an ordinal variable; the airline travelers would be asked how they rate the comfort of an aircraft on a scale of 1-7; a score of 1 means very uncomfortable and a score of 7 means very comfortable. Aircraft manufacturers are adding new, unique features inside the cabin for the purpose of improving the experience and satisfaction of passengers. Airline manufacturers are also beginning to manufacture planes using light-weight composite materials as the main material for constructing the airframe. This makes the airplane to be about 20 percent more fuel efficient (James, 2006). In essence, the design of the airplane ...