Originally Posted by
EWR764
Acumen paid for the development of the Optima layout before it had a customer, not for the development of the Polaris product or the certification costs associated with actually getting the seat on a passenger-carrying airplane. Acumen didn't develop a certified seat unit ready to be installed in a civil airliner; rather it licensed the basic Optima IP to United, then United worked with Zodiac to bring the product to market. United chose the layout first because it achieved direct aisle access with the density the company wanted, then UA went in search of a manufacturer to build it.
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My point is that it's not clear, and not likely, the Polaris product was chosen as a cost-effective direct aisle access solution. Very little about the hard product appears to be motivated by cost control (cheap hard product), IMO the focus was on maximizing revenue (density) with a reasonable, but significant development cost which probably exceeded that of comparable off-the-shelf products on a unit basis.
Acumen remained involved through the certification process. To get the seat certified, Acumen had to figure out a way to attach the seats to the tracks. They even recommended changes to Boeing so that they could maximize the cabin density. Zodiac didn't do any of that work. I doubt United paid for any of that work.
United did pay PG to customize the product, but the costs there are no different than any airline bears when it buys an off-the-shelf product and must customize it to suit the brand. (AA worked with JPA design on the 77W Cirrus.)
All in all, it seems very likely that Polaris cost United no more than any of the existing off-the-shelf products. In effect, that is what Acumen was selling because they wanted a launch customer for the seat.