James Thompson - Founder
Thompson Solutions takes it name from James, who has been working in aircraft seat manufacture and design for 20 years. Apprenticed at Aircraft Furnishings in Northern Ireland (now part of the B/E Aerospace group) he graduated from toolmaker to establishing the prototype shop within AFL in NI at the tender age of 22 and latterly to the drawing office as lead design engineer.

The drawing office became his long term home and it is the skills and insight that James developed working for AFL, Flight Equipment, Britax and B/E Aerospace (along with numerous car manufacturing companies), together with his innate creativity, that give Thompson Solutions its spark.

James holds numerous patents (20 plus), most of which have been brought to production.
 
 
Andrew Bridgeman - Marketing
Andy started his career in civil aircraft manufacturing and this was followed by extensive airline experience with British Caledonian and British Airways, primarily in senior planning, operational and sales/marketing roles. His responsibilities included fleet planning and aircraft selection together with consumer research and development of the on-board products. This encompassed evaluation and selection of new seating and IFE products.

He left BA to become Managing Director of Contour Seats, a company primarily renowned for designing and manufacturing innovative, high comfort, quality First and Business Class seating. Following its eventual acquisition by Britax he became Director of Sales for the seating division.


Brian Rogers – Projects
Brian has been in the seating business since 1979 and worked in almost every aspect of it. His first ten years were spent within Aircraft Furnishings (latterly B/E Aerospace), building seats on the production line in both hands on and management roles. His last ten years have been customer facing, selling seats to airlines, supporting those seats in service, training airline engineers and helping plan what new seats to build.

If there is anyone in the world who knows about how aircraft seats are made, how they are maintained, what works and what doesn’t, it’s Brian.