Dassault Systèmes announced just prior to Paris Air Show the launch of “Passenger Experience,” what it describes as a new aerospace and defense industry solution experience that featuring high-end 3D visualization technology for customized aircraft cabins.

As Pierre Marchadier, Vice President, Public Relations, Corporate Communications, and Global Events, Dassault Systèmes, told Aerospace Engineering at the Paris Air Show, “The passenger is the last bastion to conquer in the aerospace industry.”

And he meant it in the best way. Indeed, throughout the show the talk to the press conferences seats, if not the talk on the street, was very focused on the passenger, and not just stretching versions of planes already flying like the A380 to fit more of them in. Instead, it’s about connecting them and, if possible, making it seem like they’re the only ones of the plane through a customized experience, such as allowing them to preorder food, or starting off a movie on flight B exactly where they left off on flight A. It’s also about comforting them.

There have been many technological advances in the industry since nearly every plane flying today went into production, and “there are still lots of planes to produce,” said Marchadier. And if not finally, then at least intently, passengers have become part of the conversation as aircraft modernization and the retirement of thousands of aircraft over the next decade have led to a strong build cycle in the industry. That fact in particular has is spurred innovation in cabin personalization and passenger comfort as “an effective tool” for OEMs, completion centers, suppliers, and airlines to differentiate themselves and bring back flyers.

Based on Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform, Passenger Experience uses 3D visualization technology and interactive content to transform engineering data into visual 3D design, marketing, and sales applications that address all aspects of the cabin design experience—from initial customer interaction and design validation and verification, through to marketing campaigns. “We think of ourselves as strategy partners as opposed to software suppliers,” said Marchadier.

Passenger Experience automates cabin completion processes with essential intelligent “building blocks” capturing rules, regulations, and manufacturing knowledge to automate cabin interior design, development, and delivery.

Real-time cabin configuration and immersive cabin validation capabilities enable quick turnaround time on design configurations, reduce engineering changes, and ensure that the final product meets expectations before a physical prototype is created.

Different forms of training and visualization content, including web-based courseware, interactive game-based training and fully immersive 3D visualization, increase training efficiency and minimize time out of the field for cabin crews and aircraft on the ground.

“Allowing aircraft customers to experience their choices as they make them, to appreciate the beauty, effect, practicality, feasibility, cost, and benefit in real time as they make these choices, is a key goal for Passenger Experience,” said Michel Tellier, Vice President Aerospace & Defense Industry, Dassault Systèmes. “There is a competitive advantage in bringing maximum harmony between the interior while it is being specified and what will be delivered, and ultimately marketed, to the private or commercial passenger.”