  A preliminary comparison of evacuation times of the Flying V and the Airbus
A350-900 is presented in this study. A simple simulation tool based on the
technique of cellular automata was created to model the evacuation process for
different closed door configurations. Certification regulations state that the
time to evacuate a civil aircraft in case of an emergency with half of all exit
doors closed must be less than 90 seconds. The results of this study indicate
that the shorter V shaped cabin has advantages over the longer conventional
reference cabin for cases when passengers need to evacuate towards the front or
the back of the aircraft. Disadvantages occur when the passengers in the V
shaped cabin need to evacuate more towards one side (left or right wing) of the
aircraft. A more detailed simulation model to further investigate these cases
is currently created by the authors.
