TORRANCE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb 25, 2026--
Salient Motion, an aerospace component supplier, today announced a partnership with Italian aircraft cabin interiors leader Aviointeriors to provide Seat Actuation Control Systems for the Allegra and Allegra HD business class seating programs.
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The partnership will expand the Allegra seating family’s reach by introducing a qualification-ready seat actuation alternative in roughly one year. Using Salient Motion’s rapid certification process, Aviointeriors can offer airlines greater supplier choice and faster access to certified systems across major aircraft platforms, reducing development risk and providing a modern alternative to legacy actuation solutions.
The Allegra platform—spanning Allegra, Allegra HD, and Allegra Plus—is Aviointeriors’ next-generation Business Class seating line for wide-body and narrow-body aircraft. The fully lie-flat configurations offer generous personal space, customizable branding options, and available features such as wireless charging, lumbar support, massage, and climate control. The platform can be installed across multiple aircraft types and cabin configurations. Allegra Plus optimizes cabin space while integrating with the Allegra seats behind it, eliminating the need for a physical class divider. Allegra is included in the Airbus A330 catalogue and will also be installed on the Boeing 737 MAX and Airbus A321, extending the platform across narrow-body fleets.
A New Economic Model: Dismantling Barriers to Innovation
The seat actuation system market is experiencing sustained growth as airlines invest in premium cabin upgrades and expanded lie-flat seating offerings. However, the supply base remains highly concentrated, with a limited number of legacy suppliers relying on bespoke designs, long development cycles, and high non-recurring costs. These constraints have made it increasingly difficult for seat manufacturers, airlines, and airframers to introduce new seating solutions on realistic timelines.
The challenge extends beyond airlines to airframers themselves. At a Barclays industry conference last year, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said the company has 787 Dreamliners, a twin-aisle jetliner used on some of the world’s longest flights, on the ground at its South Carolina factory “that are held up for delivery for the seats. … It’s getting the seats certified, and it’s not actually the butt part of the seat. … These are pretty complex systems, and getting those certified has taken both the seat suppliers and us longer than anticipated.”
“We saw a structural issue emerging in the aircraft interiors market—one where innovation was being slowed by long certification timelines and limited supplier choice,” said Vishaal Mali, CEO of Salient Motion. “That was the signal for us to put our engineers to work. In under a year, we took a seat actuation concept from a napkin sketch to a qualification-ready system. This partnership with Aviointeriors demonstrates what’s possible when modular design and software-driven development are applied to one of the most constrained categories in aerospace. And this is just the beginning of what we believe the industry will ultimately demand from its suppliers.”
“Integrating new actuation systems typically means complex certification processes and extended timelines,” said Christian Battisti, Sales & Marketing Director at Aviointeriors. “What impressed us most was the speed and maturity with which this solution evolved, from concept to a qualification-ready system in less than a year. From a seat supplier’s perspective, having access to a modular, software-driven actuation platform represents a meaningful step forward. It enables greater flexibility in seat design, simplifies integration across different programs, and supports faster time-to-market while maintaining the highest standards of safety and reliability.”
The system’s software-defined architecture enables diagnostics and predictive maintenance capabilities, helping operators improve reliability and reduce in-service disruptions over the life of the seat. Salient Motion will provide ongoing engineering support to ensure airworthiness compliance, delivering a complete Seat Control Actuation System kit—including power supply units, actuators, harnessing, and embedded software—designed to meet the rigorous requirements of both narrow-body and wide-body aircraft.
For more information about Salient Motion and its modular actuation technologies, visit salientmotion.com.
About Salient Motion
Founded in 2022, Salient Motion is an aerospace technology company developing modular, software-driven motion control systems that power critical actuation and power electronics across commercial and defense platforms. Its mission is to modernize aerospace manufacturing by reducing certification barriers, increasing reliability and enabling faster deployment of advanced technologies. Learn more at salientmotion.com.
About Aviointeriors
Aviointeriors has been producing aircraft cabin interiors and passenger seats for over 40 years, designing, certifying, manufacturing and delivering high-quality products to leading airlines, premium operators and the world’s aircraft manufacturers. Learn more at aviointeriors.it.
FAQs
What is the focus of the Salient Motion and Aviointeriors partnership?
The partnership focuses on delivering a modular, software-defined Seat Actuation Control System (SACS) for Aviointeriors’ Allegra and Allegra HD business class seating platforms. The goal is to reduce costs, accelerate certification and modernize the development of aircraft seating motion systems.
What makes Salient Motion different from legacy suppliers?
Salient Motion replaces single-use analog hardware with a reconfigurable software stack. This enables rapid updates and certification within months, rather than years, compared with legacy suppliers that rely on bespoke designs and high upfront fees.
How does this partnership benefit airline customers directly?
By shortening certification timelines, airlines can deploy upgraded, modern seating configurations significantly faster than before. The software-defined nature of the system also allows for easier updates and maintenance, ensuring consistent reliability and a premium flight experience.
Salient Motion partners with Aviointeriors to provide Seat Actuation Control Systems for the Allegra and Allegra HD business class seating programs. From left to right: Troy Thompson, Head of Commercialization at Salient Motion, Adolfo Fratini, CEO of Aviointeriors, Christian Battisti, Director, Sales & Marketing at Aviointeriors, and Vishaal Mali, CEO and founder of Salient Motion.
PARIS (AP) — World-famous as the resting place of Napoleon, the gilded dome of the Invalides in Paris draws millions of visitors. But behind the landmark’s grand façade lies a lesser-known mission: serving as a home and hospital for wounded soldiers and victims of war for more than 350 years.
Built in the 17th century under King Louis XIV, the National Institution of Invalides houses dozens of residents — among them military veterans, Holocaust survivors and civilian victims of conflicts and attacks who receive long-term, medically supervised care.
The aging facilities are undergoing a major state-funded renovation estimated at 100 million euros ($108 million), with private donors invited to sponsor upgrading individual rooms.
This month, the hospital granted rare access to reporters from The Associated Press, allowing them into rooms that lie on either side of the centerpiece of Les Invalides, a soaring mausoleum that holds Napoleon's sarcophagus. Sometimes visitors will cross paths with residents in wheelchairs on the grounds, not realizing that the Invalides still fulfills the founding mission of Louis XIV, know as the Sun King, to offer “a home for the invalids.”
“The Invalides is a unique place — a magical, incredible and grand site,” said Gen. Christophe de Saint Chamas, a military officer who serves as the Invalides governor. It was “a communication tool to the entire world: it would be splendid so that everyone would know that Louis XIV was building something for his old soldiers.”
Above all, he said, “it was an act of gratitude from the state — actually, the first social gesture of the state. Before that, religious communities were taking in the wounded, by obligation. Here, the state said: we’re taking care of them, over the long term, until their death.”
Since housing its first former soldiers in 1674, the building has tracked the arc of French history — from being stormed during the 1789 Revolution by crowds seeking firearms, to housing thousands of veterans under Napoleon, and later opening its doors to civilian victims of war in the 20th century.
Today, residents include survivors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp Ginette Kolinka, 101, and Esther Senot, 98, who have tirelessly told their story to students and others so the lessons of the Holocaust aren’t forgotten.
Senot, born to Polish Jewish parents, was 15 when she was arrested in Paris by French police. She was deported in September 1943 by cattle train. “On the transport we left on, out of 1,000 people, only two of us returned,” she said.
She survived 17 months in Nazi camps and returned to France weighing just 32 kilograms (70 pounds), having lost 17 members of her family, including her parents and six siblings.
In postwar France, Senot remembers facing people’s disbelief and indifference to the fate of those who had been deported.
She began sharing her story publicly after a visit to Auschwitz in 1985, when she challenged a guide’s inaccurate account that ignored that most of the victims of the Nazi camps were Jewish.
“The people who were in my group said to me, ‘Madam, is it true that you were there?’ I said yes,” Senot said, showing them the number tattooed on her left arm. “And then they asked me, ‘Would you mind explaining this to us?’”
Senot chose to make the Invalides her home after her husband died and as she faced medical issues of her own.
Her brother, who fought in the French 2nd Armored Division that helped to liberate France, lived there for 10 years in the 2000s.
“I used to come and see him regularly, and at the time, of course, it was wonderful,” Senot said. “As I grew older and found myself alone, since I already knew quite a few people ... I came here.”
Outside, tourists crowd the courtyard beneath the golden dome. The museum housing Napoleon’s tomb drew more than 1.4 million visitors last year.
Inside, life is quieter — a mix of a professionalism and friendliness, with visiting officials in military uniform reflecting the institution’s special status.
Master corporal Mikaele Iva, who was injured in a parachute accident in Gabon in 2021, now lives at the Invalides.
Over time, he said, the residents form deep bonds as they chat in the coffee room or attend football matches or concerts together.
“It has truly become our second family,” Iva said. “We share both joyful and difficult moments.”
Iva, who uses a wheelchair, practices fencing, archery and golf with the Invalides’ sport club. He represents the institution at national ceremonies.
This spirit echoes military life, Iva said. “We support each other in difficult times, because we have to get back on our feet despite our injuries; we have to keep helping one another no matter what. That’s part of a soldier’s life.”
Iva, who served in a medical regiment and participated in several French operations abroad, said he is moved by recognition the nation shows through the care it gives him. In Afghanistan, he helped save a severely wounded comrade who also lives there.
Caregivers describe a similar sense of purpose.
“We devote ourselves to them body and soul,” said Mustapha Nachet, a nurse coordinator at the residents’ center since 2014. “It is the nation’s way of giving back for everything they have done.”
Nachet said 64 residents currently live on site, requiring complex logistics and highly individualized care. “A 30-year-old wounded veteran does not have the same needs or aspirations as a 99-year-old civilian war victim,” Nachet stressed.
The institution also operates as a specialized hospital for severe disabilities, with expertise in prosthetics and rehabilitation. It conducts research aimed at improving mobility for amputees and wheelchair users.
Medical teams notably took care of some victims of the 2015 attacks at the Bataclan concert hall, cafes and national stadium.
Over centuries, doctors there have observed the scars of war.
“Each conflict leaves its own mark, and none ever erases a previous one,” said Gen. Sylvain Ausset, director of the National Institution of the Invalides.
“In World War I, severe facial injuries appeared,” he said. “They had existed before, but people simply did not survive. In World War II, paraplegic and quadriplegic patients with spinal cord injuries began to survive. In more recent conflicts in the Middle East, in Iraq and Afghanistan, multiple amputations emerged on a scale never seen before. And today, the defining injury is psychological trauma.”
The nation has cared for its soldiers for over 350 years, and remains committed to that mission, Gen. de Saint Chamas, the Invalides governor, said.
“It allows active-duty troops to deploy knowing that if something happens to them,” he said, “France will be there.”
Books and photos in the room of Auschwitz concentration camp survivor Esther Senot at the National Institution of Invalides in Paris, on May 6, 2026.(AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Invalides governor, Gen. Christophe de Saint Chamas, is interviewed at the National Institution of Invalides in Paris, on May 6, 2026.(AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Master corporal Mikaele Iva and nurse coordinator, Mustapha Nachet, talk at the National Institution of Invalides in Paris, on May 6, 2026.(AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Patients are seen in front of the entrance of the National Institution of Invalides in Paris, May 6, 2026.(AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Auschwitz concentration camp survivor Esther Senot talks with Associated Press reporters at the National Institution of Invalides in Paris, on May 6, 2026.(AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
