The Boeing 787 may not be launching on time, but the world of aviation design moves ahead nonetheless. As seen here at Core77, the Aircraft Interiors Expo Hamburg was held last week, and designers and manufacturers showed off their next generation designs for those wonders of modern technology and engineering many of us spend a good deal of our lives in.

As one can see from the pictures in the Core77 gallery, the future of aircraft interiors--and one could argue the airports we use to get to and from them--looks more and more like a tranquil mix between a high-tech funeral home and a very sleek nightclub. This brings to mind an episode of "This American Life" from several years ago discussing the use of modern marketing tools to design a new religion and its church: the outcome of a straw poll was something that looked and felt like a first-class airport lounge, replete with soft music, minimalist interiors, obsequious service and time for silent meditation before the big journey.

The soft white lighting, nearly vertical walls, shell-like enclosures in the higher classes, and increased soundproofing are intended to remove the passenger as much as possible from the reality of flight, particularly on long-haul trips. Some cues are being taken from automotive interior design, but just as much seems to come from doctor's offices, churches, hotels and other places where we wait quietly.  

Perhaps a lot of this is down to designers' attempts to neutralize and sterilize what on it's face is quite a scary operation--scanning people in a heavily guarded space, then bundling them tightly into a fuel-filled canister and launching them into the air at high speed. The look and feel of these images and designs are equal parts "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Gattaca" with a little Ian Schrager on top for sex appeal.

With all of the increased attention drawn to the risks of modern aviation--fear of increasingly ghastly forms of air-based terrorism, the rapid growth in complexity of modern aviation equipment and operations, demand to hold the line or grow revenue from exorbitantly expensive services, and the very nature of our borderless world--it is no wonder that design elements for death, flight and distraction are all converging. As Laurent Haug wistfully remarked to me recently, flying used to be glamorous and romantic, now it's a misery. I think the airline industry is telling us something by its designs for the future.