The Dovetail concept is a modern evolution of the original mobile lounge vehicles designed by Eero Saarinen in the 1950s for the Washington Dulles Airport. Leveraging independent drive hubs, advanced sensors, and autonomous navigation technology, Dovetail efficiently and safely ferries passengers between aircraft and the airport without interfering with ground operations, dramatically improving the passenger experience and unlocking new levels of airport optimization.
Dovetail can be implemented in existing airports adjacent to jet bridges to enable aft-door loading and unloading of passengers, resulting in up to 30% shorter turnaround times for narrowbody aircraft. This effectively increases the daily flight capacity and passenger seating area of an airport gate without requiring any additional real estate or infrastructure changes.
This passenger boarding concept offers significant improvements in accessibility over traditional boarding methods, offering seamless wheelchair accessibility without isolating those passengers or delaying boarding procedures while waiting on specialized equipment or vehicles.
Dovetail also enables an entirely new paradigm of airport design through remote servicing of all aircraft, eliminating the need for fixed gates, jet bridges, air stairs, and pushback tractors. By utilizing Dovetail mobile lounges, the square footage of an airport terminal could be significantly reduced, resulting in shorter walking distances for passengers and increased retail traffic in a much more convenient layout. This change has the potential to enable existing airports to handle much greater passenger capacity in the near future without needing to expand their land area footprint.
The concept was featured in Aircraft Interior International Magazine’s 2024 Showcase.
