Behind the engineers' seats is an emergency area in which they can lie prone in case of collision.
Front Seat American engineers felt that European Union500s were hampered by a clumsy front seat; it took too many steps to move the front seats out of the way to allow passengers to get into the back seat.
In redesigning its vans, Chrysler chose not to copy Honda's clever third seat; its engineers said they concluded that the subfloor compartment generated too much noise when the seat was up.
In the passenger's seat, another engineer with a laptop takes notes, logging unusual events and incidents for further analysis. .
He can see the engineer seated at the controls.
The passenger would be walled off from the front seat, but Nissan engineers suggested that a London-style two-way intercom could be installed so riders could still talk to the driver.
"Business class is where competition really is serious," says Björn Bosler, the airline's manager for passenger experience design, business and premium, who led Lufthansa's team of dozens of seat designers and engineers.
Mr. Askeland said he would be happy to do that, but he takes satisfaction in the way that in this case, marketing took a back seat to the engineers.
The nonlinear behaviour of the seat structure forces engineers to use virtual prototyping and numerical analysis in its design.
The data monitoring room in Woking can seat up to 13 engineers before an array of 26 monitor screens.
