Flexjet has awarded an aviation business student at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University $100,000 for his winning aircraft interior design, Carolina, in the Project LXi – Design the Ultimate Private Jet Interior Contest. Woojae Sohn, worked with his father, Youngmin Sohn, on the design and drew inspiration from their family vacations in Mount Pleasant, S.C. The interior will be installed in one of Flexjet’s Gulfstream G650 aircraft and will become one of the Flexjet’s LXi Cabin Collection™ of custom interiors.
There were more than 150 entries in the contest that launched in October 2024. Those entries were narrowed down by a committee of Flexjet creatives and executives to 12. Then the public 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. Then they sourced the materials needed to create the designs to assist Flexjet Chairman Kenn Ricci in selecting the winner.
In a call between Ricci at Flexjet’s Global Headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio and Sohn at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., earlier this week, Ricci said, “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. You won $100,000!”
Sohn was quiet for a moment while that sunk in and said, “Really?! Let’s Go!” He raised both hands in a victory fist pump and said, “Thank you so much Kenn. I appreciate it.”
For Sohn, participating in the contest meant more than the chance to win $100,000. “This contest created a stronger bond between me and my father,” he told Ricci. His father, Youngmin Sohn, is a Design Director and 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 veneer on the bulkhead of the interior that represented a grove of trees they recalled from the vacation. In addition, 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. “It’s a very elegant design,” he said in a video on his Instagram describing the design.
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. Look for more coverage of the process as Carolina prepares to join the Flexjet fleet in 2026.
