On the first day of the show Lufthansa Technik officially inaugurated the brand-new Cabin Innovation Centre at its Hamburg Airport base.
Over the past few years the company’s Innovation Engineering team has turned out a stream of leading-edge cabin systems that includes the NICE network, NICEview moving-map system, surround-sound flat-panel speakers and a wide range of other inflight entertainment subsystems. Now they have their own dedicated facility, newly completed at a cost of Eur10 million and housing offices, laboratories and test equipment, and a showroom for use by current and potential customers.
“This marks an expansion of our expertise in the field of cabin innovation while also paving the way for the long-term growth of this business unit,” said company chairman August Henningsen. “By opening it on the first day of the world’s most important cabins show we are emphasising the importance of this sector to us as a company and to the Hamburg region in general.”
The Cabin Innovation core team currently comprises around 60 people, a figure that’s set to grow to around a hundred as the new centre is occupied. Third-party suppliers operating in the centre will bring the total under its roof to a couple of hundred.
Airworthiness assessments of new products will be carried out in the centre’s qualification lab, which includes an environmental chamber, electromagnetic compatibility equipment, and vibration and crash test facilities. Lufthansa Technik’s existing airworthiness and intellectual property management functions have relocated to the new building in a move designed to speed up decisionmaking.
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