Collins looks to modularity in seating platform and production lines as new solutions to thorny problems

LE BOURGET: Collins Aerospace is one of the industry’s biggest seatmakers, with new strategies to deal with familiar production issues — and some new ones

By John Walton 9 min read
The front end of a pair of studio class seats in burgundy, black and beige

Sitting down just ahead of the Paris Air Show for a discussion with Stan Kottke, president of Collins’ Aerospace’s interiors strategic business unit, it’s clear that Kottke — just into his second year in the job — has plans for more impressive, more differentiated, yet more reliably produced seats, from a more agile Collins.

Based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, previously home to Rockwell Collins and before that B/E Aerospace, Kottke comes at the passenger experience from the United Technologies end of what is now the larger RTX group. He previously specialised in electric power systems and, at Collins, aerostructures.

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John Walton

Editor in chief of The Up Front, with two decades of experience reporting across the global aviation industry, specialising in business and first class, seats, cabins and the passenger experience.