French designer Eugeni Quitllet has barely taken a breather since winning a Red Dot Award this year for his Masters Chair, and has proved once again that he is a master when it comes to working with plastics. In this new set of ‘TSA-safe’ airline cutlery for Air France, Quitllet proves that you’re never too old to still play with your food.

14 Million Meals a Year

While airplane meals have been depressingly reduced to shrink-wrapped ‘snack boxes‘ for most fliers, recent developments have been made from various airlines to improve the in-flight experience. Consisting of a fork, knife, spoon, and ‘wings’, the balsa wood plane-like cutlery set solves ergonomic issues with traditionally small plastic utensils currently in use by airlines today. The eco-friendly cutlery collection (which is a part of a larger collection including new dinnerware) clearly took inspiration from the aerodynamic shapes commonly seen in aircraft design and what resulted is something that is both appealing to adults and safe for children. The design will also cut Air France’s raw material usage by 30% (!!) to 40 tons a year. With 14 million meals served on their flights annually, it’s no wonder Air France took special care towards developing a well-designed cutlery solution.

Hopefully, this new set of cutlery from Air France is a sign that other airlines are also re-evaluating what makes flying on an airplane a memorable experience like it was 40 and 50 years ago. If you fly Air France, keep a look out for the cutlery set starting this month.

(Images via Eugeni Quitllet)