The catalogue
Pieces & Materials
Specific desks, chairs, systems, and materials that defined the offices of aviation's most influential executives — each with its own short chapter.
Desk · c. 1900–1955
The Mahogany Partner Desk
A twin-pedestal mahogany desk, often weighing more than 600 pounds, that became the throne of every postwar airline founder.
Lounge · Standardized c. 1880, peak office use 1945–1965
The Chesterfield Sofa
Deep-buttoned, rolled-arm leather seating that turned every executive anteroom into a gentleman's club.
Chair · 1957
Saarinen Tulip Chair
A single-pedestal cast-aluminum chair that erased what Saarinen called 'the slum of legs' under conference tables.
Lounge · 1948
Saarinen Womb Chair
The chair Florence Knoll commissioned because she 'wanted a chair that was like a basket full of pillows — something I could really curl up in.'
Desk · 1957
Saarinen Pedestal Table
The conference-room companion to the Tulip chair — a single cast-aluminum stem holding a marble top, completing Saarinen's campaign against the slum of legs.
Chair · 1950
Saarinen Executive Armchair (Model 71)
Saarinen's first Knoll commission — a sculpted molded shell on slim steel legs that quietly furnished half the boardrooms of the 1950s before the Tulip arrived.
Chair · 1956
Eames Lounge Chair (670)
Molded rosewood plywood and down-filled leather — the chief pilot's reading chair, and later the CEO's.
System · 1964 (II: 1968)
Herman Miller Action Office
The first modular office system — a utopian vision of reconfigurable knowledge work that aviation HQs adopted early.
Chair · 1994
Aeron Chair
The mesh-suspension chair that retired the leather throne and made ergonomics a C-suite virtue.
Material · c. 2005–present
Carbon Fiber Conference Table
Tabletops woven from the same prepreg carbon laminate used in the 787 and A350 — light, rigid, and unmistakably aerospace.
Material · c. 2000–present
Recycled Aircraft Aluminum
Decommissioned 747 fuselage panels, engine cowlings, and wing skins reborn as desks, tables, and shelving.