In The Seat | Adam Challenor, Technical Director

I support the team in the design, development, engineering and programme delivery of our aircraft seats at Mirus.

We’re responsible for the full product life cycle, which starts with designing a concept seat through to developing it into a more mature product with in-depth engineering, analysis and test.  When the developed seat is ready, we will then manage the certification and production delivery of the seat.  As part of the customer delivery team, we pride ourselves in collaborating with our customers to customise our seats for their needs and ensure we support the seats when in production and in service.

As a team we really focus on simplicity in design and execution and this becomes a virtuous circle as it enables us to minimise weight, minimise parts and ease maintenance.  This mantra also ensures we consider end of life separation of parts, which in turn will aid recyclability, this all contributes towards our sustainability goals.  Although our seats are super lightweight, we really do focus on durability, through the extensive design, analysis and testing that we do at Mirus.

You have a vast experience in aircraft interiors, tell us about this…

I’ve been in the aircraft seating industry now for nearly 15 years and I love it.  It’s a great industry, full of passionate people, innovation, and competition. And we’re working on products that are ultimately used by passengers on aircraft!

My experience started with working on new business class and premium economy class seating for Virgin Atlantic.

Business class seating is very complex and involved mechanically, as well as electrically and I remember there can be as many components in a business class seat as there are in a small car!  Some of the mechanisms to operate tables and the seats can be unbelievably complicated!

Since then, I’ve worked in economy seating.  Working in a similar business on a similar growth trajectory to Mirus in the past means you know what good and of course what “not so good” looks like, it means I can impart that experience and help steer the business in a direction that we know will be successful without necessarily making the same mistakes of old.

My heart is in economy class seating.  The market is super competitive and its so important for the product to have an edge over the competition in order for it to be attractive and to sell.  With economy seating, there’s no where to hide in the design and because there are so many of them per shipset:-  Every gram counts, as does every pound in cost and minute to build.  It drives us to leave no stone unturned, to not be afraid of failure to embrace marginal gains in improvement in everything we do.

Tell us about some of the standout moments so far with Mirus

There have been quite a few so far at Mirus but I would say that certifying Kestrel and achieving a sub 7kg weight whilst still achieving best in class levels of living space, comfort with our unique product design is probably the standout moment so far.

I’m delighted in the interest in Kestrel, to be competing against the more established players so soon, is a testament to what we’ve achieved as a business so far.  And I know that this is only the beginning, we’ve a lot more to come as a team with more new products being developed and introduced over the coming years.

I always think that the Hamburg Aircraft Interiors Show is a good reflection as to how well we’re doing in the industry and this year for us was unbelievable.  As a team we were fantastic, working really well together, the products were great and the interest from airlines was unprecedented for us.  I’m sure we’ll surpass it next year but for me it made all that hard work getting to that point worthwhile.

What do you love about your job at Mirus?

I get a kick out of seeing the team at Mirus growing, maturing and succeeding and I’m very proud of what they’ve achieved so far in our journey.

My other love at Mirus is being part of a team that develops and delivers world class seats.  Our testing capability at Mirus through the MTEST facility is second to none and we are fortunate to have this, however, we only start to yield the benefits of this if we start with well-designed and understood product in the first place.  Only then can we start to get into marginal gains of improvement on weight or durability or certification compliance.  We do this through our standout design, analysis and cert teams who embrace development loops that enable us to learn and iterate fast.

Our seats are front and centre of what Mirus is about and for me personally is what I’m passionate about!

What do you enjoy doing with your time outside of Mirus

As a family, we moved to Norfolk as part of moving to Mirus back in 2021.  So, at the moment, we’re into exploring the beautiful county of Norfolk, and I have to say that we’re really enjoying it.

When I’m not thinking about aircraft seats, I’m generally thinking about cars.  I love them, dream of them and enjoy watching them race.

In our family we really enjoy rugby, we’re Northampton Saints fans, they’ve done so well this year!  We went to France last year for the World Cup, and were delighted to see that England are now at last on the ascendancy!

If ever I need to destress and switch off, I love listening to music… the louder and bassier the better!