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Aircraft Interior Solutions Awaits FAA Review of Innovative Seat

6 min read

A small company in North Little Rock is poised for expansion thanks in part to an innovative passenger seat undergoing review by the Federal Aviation Administration.

If a client’s side-slip seat design receives the FAA stamp of approval, Aircraft Interior Solutions will be in the business of assembling the new fuselage furniture for airline deployment. Once green-lighted, the economy-class seating project will launch the hiring of additional workers and a rollout of more production space.

“All the computer models say it will be FAA-certified,” said Marshal “Jake” Jacobs, president of Aircraft Interior Solutions.

As many as 90 hourly employees could be hired during 2016 and set in motion a 2017 groundbreaking for construction of a 40,000-SF company-owned facility if all goes well.

As a temporary solution, Aircraft Interior Solutions would expand its leased quarters into the other half of the 14,000-SF building at 5100 W. Bethany Road. The projected buildup would entail 25 new workers in early 2016, 25 more by mid-summer and 40 by year’s end.

For now, expansion plans are in a holding pattern. The side-slip seating is expected to clear the final rounds of FAA approval and allow production to start in March or April.

“We didn’t think it was going to go anywhere,” Jacobs said, describing his thoughts when he was first approached about doing a sample seat cover for the side-slip prototype.

By his reckoning, FAA approval of the product will unleash the eventual output of 8,000 seats monthly during the next 2.5 years. It will also transform Aircraft Interior Solutions into a multimillion-dollar concern.

A dozen years since its inception as a literal garage startup, the venture is on the brink of entering uncharted fiscal territory.

“It’s been a wild ride, and we’ve had a lot of help from a lot of people,” Jacobs said.

Revenue bounced above $1 million last year and would’ve done so for a second consecutive year in 2015, except the company won’t book $400,000 of business until it is paid in 2016.

Aircraft Interior Solutions developed a name for itself for seat cover work, which provided the gateway to landing the deal to assemble the side-slip seat.

“You do something wrong, and your name is mud,” said Reneé Garris, sales and marketing manager at Aircraft Interior Solutions. “Reputation is key in this industry.”

A creation of Molon Labe Designs in Breckenridge, Colorado, the novel three-seat configuration allows the aisle seat to slide over the middle seat with the push of a button.

This unusual capability converts a standard 20-inch airline aisle into a 41-inch thoroughfare. That makes full-size wheelchair access possible and dealing with overhead storage easier.

The design was envisioned to speed up the boarding and deplaning of passengers and save airlines precious minutes per turnaround. That can translate into financial savings in terms of improved fleet utilization and maintaining flight schedules.

The target market for the side-slip? Low-cost carriers such as Southwest Airlines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue and Allegiant Air in the United States and dozens more abroad.

The staggered side-slip design, which locks in place, also features a slightly larger 20-inch-wide middle seat with two armrests while its neighbors only have one.

“People will pay more money for the middle,” Garris said. “That wasn’t the intent, but the airlines recognized it as an opportunity to upcharge.”

Throw in recyclable cushion options with less jet fuel burned at the terminal from faster passenger transfers and the “passengers, planet and profit” pitch by Molon Labe Designs is complete.

Side-slip seat production includes machined parts from Primus Aerospace of Lakewood, Colorado; sheet metal components from Cutting Dynamics in Avon, Ohio; cushions produced by Chestnut Ridge Foam in Latrobe, Pennsylvania; and seat belts courtesy of the Takata Protection Systems plant in Torrance, California.

Assembled with the addition of the seat covers by Aircraft Interior Solutions, the completed side-slip units will be shipped out from North Little Rock.

“There will be a lot of trucks coming in and out,” Garris said.

The assembled seats will be transported for installation by two industry giants: AAR Corp. and STS Aviation Group.

“It’s kind of like playing the Grand Ole Opry,” Garris said. “If you do work with them, you have arrived.”

Jacobs is still trying to get his mind around the ongoing possibilities for future work for commercial airlines, an industry where seat framing is replaced every five to seven years, cushions every two years and seat covers every 12-18 months.

“We haven’t even figured that yet,” he said.

Jacobs credits the relationship developed making seat covers for Chestnut Ridge cushions as a catalyst in getting more opportunity.

“They were a big help in getting into the commercial market,” he said.

Looking Back

Jacobs traces the start of his entrepreneurial endeavor in aviation to an observation made while attending flight training school in Florida.

He noticed the seats in the general aviation aircraft were falling apart and in some cases held together by duct tape. That inspired him to start working from his home garage selling seat covers for single-engine aircraft on eBay in 2003.

“I could make patterns, but I didn’t know how to sew,” admits the 57-year-old businessman, a self-described Army brat whose father was a helicopter pilot.

Despite his personal limitations as a tailor, his one-man show grew with the help of outside talent.

That led to a relocation in 2005 to a small hangar at the North Little Rock airport, which eventually became two hangars: one for sewing seat covers and another for housing the aircraft during installation.

Custom work for general aviation customers grew into larger aircraft and corporate jets. Military work joined the mix in 2006, the same year operations gained designation as an FAA-certified repair station.

That year, the company did its first big seat cover contract: a classified job for 90 helicopter seats for the military. A contract to produce aircraft insulation blankets for the Air Force led to other jobs for work on KC-130 tankers and C-130 transports.

“We still do a lot of stuff with the military,” Garris said.

Aircraft Interior Solutions hopes to emerge with a contract for pilot and co-pilot seating for the Air Force. The five-year deal winding its way through the bidding process represents more than $3 million.

The line of civilian and military products now encompasses insulation blankets, seat covers, headrest covers, armrest covers, crew seat covers and bunks.

As the company was wading into the military market, the custom market dried up with the arrival of the Great Recession.

“2008 was really tough on us,” Jacobs said. “We did one airplane that year.”

That led to the start of aircraft maintenance operations in 2009 as a stopgap measure in a third hangar while he worked to develop military contracts and commercial airline work.

Today, the company’s three hangars at the North Little Rock Airport are devoted to aircraft maintenance after the manufacturing operations moved to Bethany Road in 2012.

Revenue from maintenance work took on added importance that year when Aircraft Interior Solutions temporarily lost its FAA certification to manufacture.

The company’s on-again, off-again production, linked with landing and completing contracts, was deemed too small to bother with an annual inspection by the FAA.

Manufacturing operations went into limbo for three months until then-Congressman Tim Griffin helped cut through the red tape.

“We had to wait on the certification to begin production again,” Garris said. “Fortunately, the customers we were working with understood, and we were able to fulfill our orders.”

The company has found a profitable niche with its quality work and quick turnaround of orders. Over the years, the company developed a pool of 30 flex employees who come and go as contract work ebbs and flows.

“I like it, and they like it, and it’s cost effective,” Jacobs said.

The coming changes represented by the side-slip deal will introduce a regular production cycle at Aircraft Interior Solutions. It will also challenge the company to maintain its standards while ramping up its volume to historic levels.

“Are we the cheapest in the industry?” Garris said. “No. Do we have the highest quality? That’s where we want to be.

“We will always have the best quality and best turnaround time, bar none.”

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