Adient and Boeing are presenting innovative lie-flat business class seating solutions and cabin layout strategies to gather valuable feedback from potential customers at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Germany. The companies intend to contribute those prototypes to Adient Aerospace, the joint venture that Adient and Boeing are planning to establish to develop, manufacture and sell a portfolio of seating products.
Adient and Boeing see an opportunity to leverage emerging technologies and trends found in the automotive industry to develop future airplane seating products.
“Looking at this convergence across mobility sectors, we believe our solutions will bring disruptive technologies and thinking through intelligent, modern and function-integrated design, benefitting the aviation industry and passengers worldwide,” said Richard Chung, vice president of Innovation and Design at Adient. “We are particularly interested in how smart seats interact with passengers to give a greater degree of comfort, innovation, features and functions.”
Through their collaboration, Boeing and Adient are exploring seating solutions that integrate advanced design, comfort, safety and security components, as well as superior craftsmanship and high tactile, sound, and material quality for interior airline cabin harmony.
“Future trends in automotive mobility, including autonomous cars providing new seating configuration opportunities, present an interesting parallel with airline seating,” said Chung. “Comfortable and flexible seating configurations will help create optimum passenger experience through the flight, whether reclining, working, eating, being entertained or sleeping.”
Most of the current product development efforts are focused on lie-flat business class for wide-body aircraft. “However, our ambition is to satisfy airline seating needs from tip to tail. So we are already working on multiple classes of seats and cabin layout strategies,” said Jason Fahlbush, nominated COO of Adient Aerospace. “We are excited to meet with potential customers at Hamburg to showcase our demonstrator seats and gather valuable feedback to inform our product design and development plan.”
In January 2018, Adient and Boeing announced their intent to form Adient Aerospace. The establishment of the joint venture is subject to customary regulatory approvals.
Printing/Publishing of attached image is free of charge (© Adient).
Adient and Boeing seek to create a superior customer experience through Adient’s automotive background, delivering human-centric comfort, intelligent and modern design. Photo: Adient AI 17 demonstrator.
About Adient:
Adient is the global leader in automotive seating. With 85,000 employees operating 238 manufacturing/assembly plants in 34 countries worldwide, we produce and deliver automotive seating for all vehicle classes and all major OEMs. From complete seating systems to individual components, our expertise spans every step of the automotive seat making process. Our integrated, in-house skills allow us to take our products from research and design all the way to engineering and manufacturing – and into more than 25 million vehicles every year. For more information on Adient, please visit adient.com.
About Boeing:
Boeing is the world’s largest aerospace company and leading manufacturer of commercial airplanes and defense, space and security systems. Boeing is also the world leader in combined commercial airlines and government services with customers in more than 150 countries. The company’s products and tailored services include commercial and military aircraft, satellites, weapons, electronic and defense systems, launch systems, advanced information and communication systems, and performance-based logistics and training. Boeing employs approximately 140,000 people across the United States and in more than 65 countries. Company revenues for 2016 were $94.6 billion.
