Brazilian students invent new way to speed up luggage loading

University of Sao Paulo team wins Airbus’ Fly Your Ideas 2013

Five Brazilian students from University of Sao Paulo claimed the top prize of 30,000 Euros for winning the Airbus Fly Your Ideas 2013 Challenge (FYI). Inspired by air hockey tables, Team Levar’s proposal for a luggage loading and unloading system for aircraft cargo compartments aims to reduce the workload of airport baggage handlers with an air cushion solution. Supported by UNESCO, Airbus FYI is a global biennial competition that challenges students worldwide to develop ideas for a more sustainable aviation industry.

More than 6,000 students registered the FYI 2013. Team Levar was chosen from 600 other teams because their innovation went beyond the challenge's objective of developing new ideas for an eco-efficient aviation industry.

Charles Champion, Airbus Executive Vice President of Engineering and FYI judge said "Team Levar has taken a really broad view of how to improve the aviation industry as a whole, not limiting its ideas to aircraft alone but also considering ground operations."

The team's winning concept, called "Levar" uses air bags and low friction surface to allow the luggage to slide into and out of the cargo compartment, which would make the process much faster. According to the Team, with growing air traffic around the world, especially in an emerging market such as Brazil, this ergonomic improvement would have a variety of positive impacts for airlines and their customers:

- It would reduce the physical efforts of airline workers handling luggage;
- Passengers would get their luggage 30% faster;
- Ground services and airport activity would gain efficiency.

Additionally, "Levar" being a structure mostly composed of air, it would not affect the loading capacity of an aircraft.

The originality of the project also lies in the composition of the team. The finalists are design students and none of them is an aviation specialist. This multidisciplinary approach, combined with exhaustive research into aviation industry issues allowed them to come up with a pragmatic solution that not only makes a daily process easier, but also focuses on a more sustainable work environment.

To read more about Airbus Fly Your Ideas Challenge and Team Levar, click here.

For more information contact:
Camille Imbert
PR & Communications, Latin America & Caribbean
camille.imbert@airbus.com