Adient Aerospace have been shortlisted for the Cabin Design (Business & First Class) Award in The International Yacht & Aviation Awards. Read more about the team at Adient below:

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Company: Adient Aerospace

Website: www.adient-aerospace.com

Tell us a little about your company:
Adient Aerospace is a joint venture between Adient and the Boeing Company. Boeing brings a deep knowledge of Aerospace, and Adient is a world leader in automotive seating. Our highly proficient team comes from a variety of educational backgrounds and careers in the aerospace and automotive industries, many with decades of experience. From our team in Kaiserslautern, Germany to the West Coast of the United States, we each bring a unique perspective and background which enhance our products and enrich our team.

How would you describe your company’s design style?
Precisely right. The design of Ascent works so well because it meets both the requirements and high expectations of the business class traveller and our airline customers while still being able to be manufactured with the craftmanship and comfort that our brand is known for. It’s this precision that inspires us to not design for aesthetics alone, but focus on maintainability and longevity of the product to satisfy the needs of the airline and enhance the passenger experience.

Where does your design inspiration come from?
We drew our design inspiration from our automotive heritage, using automotive processes in comfort and craftsmanship to design a business class seat with function and finishes unlike any other Business Class product flying today. Ultimately our vision of improving the experience of a world in motion inspires us every day, providing the clarity of purpose and sense of impact that our work has.

In what direction do you feel that design is moving towards in a general sense?
While airline passengers over the years have placed great value on privacy, the COVID-19 impact has drastically increased this need. At Adient Aerospace we were looking ahead as Ascent offers privacy and separation for the solo travelers- an important feature that will continue to be needed in a post-pandemic world. Seating products will need to provide a comfortable and functional space that passengers can call their own. Surfaces which are smooth with tight tolerances provides for ease of cleaning and ensuring a safe cabin, this is where design is moving towards.

What was your favourite project to work on and why?
Our favorite project to work on has been our Ascent business class seat. The most rewarding aspect of the Ascent project has been bringing the automotive influence and expertise to the aerospace industry and seeing the successful results in the realized product. We recently completed the engineering and certification of Ascent and are in the production phase, having already delivered our first set of seats to our launch customer. It’s one accomplishment to be satisfied with your design concept, but to carry that through to a realized product that is certified to fly and exceeds the customer’s expectations is something we’re proud to have achieved in less than 3 years from the time our company was founded.

What was your most challenging project to work on and why?
While Ascent was our favorite project, it was also our most challenging project to design, engineer, certify and produce a new business class seat in less than 3 years from the time our company was founded. Our team worked with many suppliers and partners who offered support and expertise during the early days of the Ascent development to design and develop the most innovative aircraft seating. To collaborate internally across our sites in the US and Europe as a growing company and set up an outstanding supply chain is normally difficult enough. We also completed our certification and produced our first production seats during a global pandemic. While the project was certainly challenging, it’s a testament to our team and the dedication we have to improve the experience of a world in motion.

Which products/services could you not live without when designing? Our design team specialist software, Wacom tablets and collaboration tools like SharePoint and Teams which allow for easy collaboration in remote work settings.

How important are The International Yacht & Aviation Awards?
The International Yacht & Aviation Awards maintains the ideals of luxury and incentivizes the commercial sector to aspire to the luxurious offerings commonly seen in yachts and other areas of private aviation. This elevates the passenger experience which is fundamental to Adient Aerospace’s vision for our seating products.

What are your aims and goals for the next twelve months?
Our goal for the next year is to successfully support our customers who are entering into service with our Ascent business class seat. We also want to support all our airline customers as our industry moves closer to recovery from the Covid pandemic.

Adient Aerospace

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