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was the poor reliability of the audio jacks that people plug their headphones into on aircraft. I looked at the design of those jacks, to figure out the causes of failure, then set out to redesign them from first principles. The result was an audio jack that could withstand 100,000 headset insertions instead of just 5000.

“ Over several years, I managed to secure modest sales of these modules to various manufacturers of in-flight systems. My first contract was for 300 units, followed by 1000, which were assembled in my garage by me, my parents and my son. Then a little while after that I secured a contract to supply 10,000 units. It was at this point that I decided to employ a small team of four people. Today, we employ 85 people.

“ Over the years, we have developed a large range of audio jacks, and USB modules to the point where we have recently shipped our four millionth unit. Our products are installed on every major airline in the world.

“ In 2021,” Geoff continues,“ we acquired Cobalt Aerospace, a growing designer and manufacturer of wireless LED cabin mood

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