Automobile construction is no longer Adient’s (Burscheid / Germany; www.adient.com) exclusive area of business. As one of the world’s leading car seat manufacturers – until 2016 part of Johnson Controls (Milwaukee, Wisconsin / USA; www.johnsoncontrols.com) – Adient plans to produce aircraft seats together with Boeing. Both companies announced a presentation of their first pre-certified seat prototype to take place at the "Aircraft Interiors Expo" in Hamburg / Germany, in spring 2018.

According to a statement from Adient CTO Detlef Juerss, the study will include numerous standard components also used in the manufacturing of car seats. Mostly consisting of plastics and composites, the product also uses steel. "Amazingly, it is a lot more like a car seat than we initially thought,” Juerss noted during the international auto show "IAA" about the new development.

The aircraft seats will be part of Adient’s "Specialty Seating" line of products, which also includes Recaro seats for race cars. In a market currently dominated by only two major suppliers, BE Aerospace (Wellington, Florida / USA; www.beaerospace.com) and Zodiac (Plaisir / France; www.zodiacaerospace.com), Juerss is certain that a third competitor can work. In the medium term, the company targets a market share of one-third of this five billion dollar industry.

However, the global passenger car seats and upholstery market, constituting a volume of USD 65-70 bn, will remain the focus of Adient, currently reporting a market share of around 30%. This is reinforced through the recent USD 360m purchase of Futuris (Oak Park, Michigan / USA). This acquisition includes 15 factories in North America and Asia as well as a sales volume of around USD 500m, with seats, arm- and head-rests.

Within the automotive industry, Adient more and more targets drivers’ and riders’ feelings and comforts. In Frankfurt, the company has presented the study "AI 18", a further development of similar concepts from past years with the goal of autonomous driving. "The driver will no longer be a driver," chief designer Richard Chung summed up.