Diehl

What they do

Diehl is a family-owned industrial group with five divisions: Defence, Aviation, Metal, Controls and Metering. In 2023 it reported revenue of 3.9 billion euros and about 16,800 employees, with aviation accounting for just over a quarter of revenue.

Why it matters

Diehl Aviation fits out aircraft cabins: galleys, lavatories, linings, air distribution and, above all, lighting. It says it has been the global market leader in cabin lighting for decades. Airbus, its main customer, has used Diehl emergency lighting and power supplies for decades, and Diehl says Boeing switched to it for emergency lighting and power supply on the 787. About three quarters of the business comes from new aircraft, the rest from cabin upgrades. Diehl Aerospace, its avionics arm, is a joint venture with Thales.

Lighting is a good example of how a supplier earns that position. Diehl developed LED lighting for aircraft in a research partnership, and it says it guarantees colour consistency over a service life of around 20 years, so that a replacement lamp fitted a decade later matches the original. Its newer products blur lighting and interiors: dynamic colour displays that simulate passing clouds, projection LEDs in luggage bins and eDecor, an E-Ink film that changes cabin decor by phase of flight. Diehl also integrates linings and lighting with the cabin management system, which it says saves weight, space and cost. Its emergency lighting is designed to sit unseen between panels or behind vents, backed by lithium-ion batteries.

Products to know

• LED cabin and mood lighting.
• Emergency lighting and power supply.
• Galleys, lavatories and cabin linings.
• Cargo-area lighting.

The German angle

Heinrich Diehl and Margarete Schmidt founded the company as an art forge in Nuremberg on 5 September 1902. It grew into a metals and engineering group and remains in the family more than a century later. Defence is its largest division; this profile focuses on its civil aviation work.

Sources

• Diehl Aviation: Cabin lighting systems
• Wikipedia: Diehl (company)
• FlightGlobal: Airbus boom helps propel Diehl into Top 100