A first-year aviation business student at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has been awarded US$100,000 by Flexjet, as his private jet interior design emerged as the winner of Flexjet’s Project LXi contest.
Woojae Sohn worked with his father Youngmin Sohn on the design, drawing inspiration from family vacations in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. The interior, named ‘Carolina’ will be installed in one of Flexjet’s Gulfstream G650 aircraft, becoming part of the LXi Cabin Collection of custom interiors.
The contest launched in October 2024, attracting more than 150 entries. Those entries were narrowed down by a committee of Flexjet creatives and executives to 12. The public then voted on the 12 semi-finalists. Flexjet’s engineers and designers took the six designs with the highest votes and created more precise visual renderings of them in Flexjet’s software. They then sourced the materials needed to create the designs to assist Flexjet chairman Kenn Ricci in selecting the winner.
Woojae Sohn is an aviation business major and a member of the Air Force ROTC. Ricci called him to reveal the news. Sohn thanked Ricci, and said the contest was a bonding experience for him and his father, Youngmin Sohn, a design director. The pair collaborated every weekend since the contest launched to craft the interior.
Details of the brown, tan and cream interior include an outline of trees on the bulkhead veneer, representing a grove of trees the Sohns recalled from their vacation.
Ricci said that in particular, he found the tufting proposed for the couch and ottoman, as well as the wood grain of the table, to be unique and something he had never seen before in an aircraft interior. “It’s a very elegant design,” he said in a video.
A formal award presentation is planned and the Sohns will be invited to tour Flexjet’s global headquarters and learn more about the installation process of the newest LXi Cabin Collection interior design. Flexjet said it will involve the Sohns in each step along the way in creating this interior, with more coverage of the process as Carolina prepares to join the Flexjet fleet in 2026.
An in-depth feature on Project LXi was published in the December 2024/January 2025 edition of Business Jet Interiors International.
