Flat-bed density
Concept comparison versus a 60-seat business lie-flat cabin.
The overnight airline
Arrive
rested.
A new aircraft cabin built around one simple idea: on a red-eye, everyone should be able to lie flat.
300
lie-flat berths
3
tiers in V1
$299–599
target fare band
1 goal
sleep through the night
The premise
Red-eyes are broken.
Sleeper is not a slightly nicer seat. It is an overnight transport layer: privacy, bedding, ventilation, power, and a berth you can actually sleep in.
The concept aims to place far more flat beds inside a widebody cabin than conventional business class, so a night of real sleep can be priced as an attainable upgrade instead of a luxury splurge.
Launch sweet spot
Overnight corridors where sleep matters and full business fares feel excessive.
Usable cabin model
The baseline geometry behind the interactive concept calculator.
A better night
Board. Climb. Close the door. Sleep.
The boarding flow should feel airline-simple, not like navigating a hostel in turbulence.
- 01Travel light
One small personal item enters the berth; larger bags stay in dedicated stowage.
- 02Find your ladder bay
Clear numbers, lighting, handrails, and crew direction make every tier legible.
- 03Settle horizontally
Private shell, bedding, airflow, power, reading light, and a certified restraint concept.
- 04Wake at destination
The product promise is measured in sleep hours gained—not seat inches added.
Cabin geometry
Perpendicular wins.
The passenger always lies horizontally. The key decision is whether the berth runs across the cabin, perpendicular to the aisle, or along the cabin, parallel to it.
Perpendicular layout
Use aircraft width for bed length.
Each 0.84 m longitudinal bay holds one berth on either side of the central ladder aisle. Stack three tiers and a 42 m usable cabin reaches 300 conceptual berths.
3003-tier berths
Clearprivate entry
V1design verdict
AISLE + LADDER SPINE
Lie-flat berth
Shared access spine
Capacity lab
Calculate what fits.
Adjust the conceptual cabin assumptions below. This is a density model—not an engineering approval, passenger-capacity certificate, or evacuation analysis.
Conceptual capacity
300
lie-flat berths
Recommended V1
floor(42.0 ÷ 0.84) × 2 sides × 3 tiers = 300
Longitudinal bays50
Berths per bay6
Berths per metre7.14
Compared with 60 lie-flats5.0×
Business lie-flat
60
Your model
300
Dense economy
406
Important: The calculator intentionally models geometry only. Real capacity depends on certified structure, restraints, monuments, exits, evacuation limits, crew stations, accessibility, oxygen, smoke containment, carry-on policy, and regulator approval.
Three tiers vs four
The fourth tier is the moonshot.
Four tiers can push the conceptual model to 400 berths, but that headline hides the hardest questions.
V1: three-tier
300 conceptual berths, clearer access, more plausible human factors, and the recommended starting point for mockup work.
V2: capsule max
400 theoretical berths, with extreme vertical-clearance, egress, smoke, restraint, and structural challenges.
“Certify three tiers first. Treat four as a future capsule-max variant only after proving demand and the safety pathway.”
Launch strategy
Start where sleep is worth the most.
The first network should focus on overnight corridors long enough to ruin tomorrow—but short enough that conventional premium cabins feel overpriced.
LAXSFOSEA
JFKBOSMIA
The real work
The hardest part is certification—not demand.
The first aircraft is a safety proof and supplemental type certificate program before it is an airline product.
Horizontal restraints
Design for turbulence, impact loads, brace position, and passenger misuse while lying flat.
Evacuation and crew access
Prove rapid egress from every tier, including smoke, darkness, blocked bays, and reduced mobility.
Structure and fire safety
Validate berth shells, ladder loads, 16g structure, materials, smoke containment, and oxygen delivery.
Human factors
Test boarding speed, claustrophobia, ladder comfort, sleep quality, sanitation, and emergency behavior.
The overnight airline category
Sleep is the product.
Join the conversation around cabin design, certification, engineering, airline partnerships, and early access.