Celebrating unplanned successes

The colored ceiling lighting on newer Boeing airplanes is an example of being told to do something impossible and coming up with a better solution instead.

I was lead engineer of 787 linings and stowage where my counterpart was told to create a 2 layered ceiling to give the impression of depth and make the interior feel larger. The program was weight critical and there is no way you can make 2 layers of anything weigh less than 1 layer, and get a cool futuristic look as well. After several months demonstrating the futility of the original idea, our architects instead showed how instead of 2 layers of material, lighting the ceiling from 2 different angles would create a perspective of depth instead.

If you walk into any newer Boeing airplane and see the LED colored lighted ceiling, that was an example of what started out as a bad idea, but instead of giving the customer what they asked for, we gave them what they really wanted instead.