Embry-Riddle Student Wins $100,000 in Flexjet’s Private Jet Interior Design Contest
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University student Woojae Sohn has been awarded $100,000 for his winning design in Flexjet’s Project LXi - Design the Ultimate Private Jet Interior Contest.
Sohn, a first-year Aviation Business student and Air Force ROTC cadet, will also see the design, titled “Carolina,” installed on one of Flexjet’s Gulfstream G650 aircraft and become one of Flexjet’s LXi Cabin Collection of custom interiors.
Sohn worked with his father, Youngmin, on the design, drawing inspiration from family vacations in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
The pair’s winning concept features a brown, tan and cream interior. Design elements include dappled sunlight, flowing water and an outline of trees on the interior bulkhead’s veneer, representing a memorable grove from their past vacations.
In choosing the design, Flexjet Chairman Kenn Ricci said 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, according to a July 1 news release published by Flexjet.
“Choosing the winner of Project LXi - Design the Ultimate Jet Interior was no easy task, but only one interior design incorporated nature, elegance and motion so gracefully,” Ricci wrote in a post on his Instagram account.
A second rendering of Sohn’s winning design, which will be installed on one of Flexjet’s Gulfstream G650 aircraft and become one of Flexjet’s LXi Cabin Collection of custom interiors. (Photo: Flexjet)
The contest, which launched in October 2024, drew more than 150 entries. A committee of Flexjet creatives and executives then selected 12 designs to be voted on by the public. The company’s engineers and designers created more precise visual renderings of the six designs that earned the highest vote totals.
The team then sourced the materials needed to create the designs to assist Ricci in selecting the winner.
During a video call from Flexjet’s global headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio, Ricci informed Sohn that his design had won. “I want you to call your dad tonight and tell him we talked, and we decided to name it ‘Carolina’ and it’s our winner,” Ricci told Sohn, who was at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The elder Sohn is a design director, and the pair collaborated every weekend to craft the interior. “This contest created a stronger bond between me and my father,” Sohn told Ricci.
The Sohns will be invited to tour Flexjet’s global headquarters to learn more about the installation process of the newest LXi Cabin Collection interior design. There will also be a formal awards presentation.
“Flexjet will involve the Sohns in each step along the way in creating this interior,” the company said in its news release.
Flexjet Chairman Kenn Ricci is an Embry-Riddle trustee.