Inairvation (Booth 2632)—a Lufthansa Technik (LHT) joint venture with F/List of Austria—is showing a new version of its “chair” seat this week at NBAA 2016 “to demonstrate how flexible the design is,” said Philip von Schroeter, LHT director of original equipment innovation and CEO of Inairvation. “We have a first VIP customer signed and will deliver the seats to our completions center in just less than a year for a VIP aircraft that is a more traditional design.”
F/List will manufacture the seats in Austria, while Lufthansa Technik looks after the design and certification. He said the partnership with F/List had been central to winning the contract due to quicker production times being available. “We are also selling our retrofit packages with our four partners–Duncan Aviation, Flying Colours, Ruag and Lufthansa Bombardier Aviation Services (LBAS),” von Schroeter said.
Pre-engineered units is another area that has progressed, with the pre-engineered side units that LHT integrates its niceHD into now being available for the Gulfstream G450/G550, adding to the Challenger 300 and 605. “Such units are still a lot of work for the MRO, but save a lot of time and cost,” he said.
Putting on his LHT hat, he also mentioned that development work on the company’s inductive cook-top is continuing and a decision will be made in the first quarter of next year whether to continue to production. The company is also offering its patient transport unit for medevac aircraft, having secured a contract with Airbus to equip four C295 military transports.
And on the media side of the business, von Schroeter said things are “slow, but we are launching a new service for the Challenger niceHD customer base that makes content far more affordable.” He noted that an informal signing related to this is expected to be inked this week at NBAA.
“Lastly, with our fin-mounted radome solution we are bringing the manufacturing into a Lufthansa Technik facility, and we’re also going to offer Ku- and Ka-band versions,” von Schroeter said. “There had been a lot of interest in LHT having radome fabrication capability.
