The Recaro BL3520 wins the “red dot award 2012”

With the “red dot: best of the best”, the BL3520 aircraft seat from Recaro Aircraft Seating has won the highest award of the world’s largest design competition. The seat convinced the 30-member international jury with its excellent design style. On July 2, 2012, this success will be celebrated on the occasion of the “red dot gala”, at which more than 1,000 guests will come together in the Aalto Theater, the opera house in Essen, Germany, for the traditional award ceremony. Afterwards the BL3520 will be displayed in a special exhibition in the “red dot design museum” from July 3 to July 29, 2012 at the Zollverein world heritage site in Essen.

“We are very proud that we have won such an important design award, the ‘red dot’, for our aircraft seat”, explains Dr. Mark Hiller, Managing Director of Recaro Aircraft Seating. “Our current economy class seat, the BL3520, is a great success – in addition to the large number of orders which have been placed since its introduction at the end of 2010, the seat has set new standards of form, weight and comfort.”

Award-winning design – made by Recaro

“The ‘red dot’ is now the third prize which we have won for the BL3520 alone”, says a pleased Hartmut Schürg, who was responsible for building up the design department at Recaro Aircraft Seating and who as head of the department was responsible for developing the seat. “These awards reflect the successful path that our company has followed with determination in the past few years. Establishing the design department fifteen years ago was the starting point, from which Recaro Aircraft Seating established itself as a company where design plays an important role in product development.”

In a process lasting several years, Recaro Aircraft Seating has consistently built up its design, ergonomics, prototyping and engineering departments. “Whereas our priority used to be fulfilling customers’ wishes, today our customers choose our products because they associate the Recaro brand with design and ergonomic comfort, in addition to quality and light weight”, explains Hartmut Schürg. He views successful product design as the result of a team effort: “Our interdisciplinary teamwork means that employees from the most diverse fields contribute their special expertise to the process. The results are welldesigned, well-engineered seats which offer the best both to passengers and airlines.”

Outstanding product characteristics

This is the case for the BL3520, with which Recaro Aircraft Seating, in addition to creating an attractive design, was able to accomplish large reductions in weight: One seat weighs less than eleven kilograms – thirty percent less than comparable models. In this way, the BL3520 contributes to improved fuel economy and a reduction in the aircraft’s CO2 emissions. Furthermore the BL3520 offers passengers more living space than comparable products. This is possible thanks to a leaner, space-saving backrest combined with patented Recaro solutions including a higher literature pocket. Instead of being placed in the passenger’s knee area, it is located above the tray table which ensures an outstanding level of passenger comfort. Airlines can install additional rows of seats and still offer more legroom, which has a positive effect on their profit.

The red dot design award

The origins of the red dot design award reach back to the 1950s. Since then, it has developed into one of the world’s most coveted awards for outstanding design. This year, 1,800 manufacturers and designers from 58 countries competed for the award. The independent jury selected their favorites from 4,515 products which were submitted for consideration.

Additional information about the “red dot design award” is available at: www.red-dot.de/press