A FAST growing firm is hoping to make long haul travel less of a chore.

Bright Spark Precision Engineering has joined forces with a firm which supplies the motor racing industry to develop a new type of aircraft seat which folds electronically into a bed.

The new seat weighs less than traditional folding seats and offers airlines savings on fuel costs.

It is one a series of innovative products being worked on by the Colne firm which has doubled its workforce to 14 in the past eight months.

And the firm invited its business advisers from Business Link East Lancashire to its Riverside Mill base, to see its progress.

The firm was set up 11 years ago by Paul Hanson and Steve Coates who had previously worked in the aerospace industry. It now supplies the aerospace, motorsport and medical engineering industries.

Since moving into new premises in 1998 the firm has invested £300,000 on new machinery and technology including a 3D design and manufacturing software package.