Farnborough 2008 Show News - July 17, 2008 - (Page 19)

FA R N B O R O U G H 2 0 0 8 MRO Industry Leadership Gap A new survey of the global maintenance, repair and overhaul industry points to further consolidation and globalization, while calling attention to a potential leadership gap in the senior executive ranks of many MRO companies. Nearly half of the 1,100 MRO employees contacted for the survey—conducted by executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles and the TeamSAI consultancy—said their companies lack the senior management personnel needed to adapt to these fundamental changes. “People look at China and India as a solution from a labor standpoint, but the executive talent pool in these countries is very shallow,” says Torbjorn Karlsson, a managing partner with H&S. “It isn’t just the language barrier; “People look at China and India as a solution from [the MRO] labor standpoint, but the executive talent pool in these countries is very shallow.” —Torbjorn Karlsson, managing partner, Heidrick & Struggles. Collins’ Jeff Standerski and BOC’s Robert Martin. BOC Aviation Plays China Card Here BOC Aviation is one aircraft leasing company that is having no trouble raising capital (since it is owned by the Bank of China), and here at Farnborough it decided to extend its use of Rockwell Collins avionics on 47 more Airbus A320s. The leasing company already has 51 A320s on order or in service, and it began specifying a suite of Rockwell Collins navigation, communications and surveillance systems in 2002 for that first group of aircraft. The next 47 (37 firm and 10 options) will have the same baseline comm/ nav/surveillance package, but the agreement also covers Rockwell Collins multi-scan weather radar, which automatically highlights dangerous thunderstorms for pilots. BOC Aviation managing director and CEO Robert J. Martin says that the Cedar Rapids, Iowa- based avionics company has been responsive and able to quickly install the suite of equipment needed when BOC is preparing an airplane for delivery to a lessee. BOC’s big customers are Westjet, China Southern, and Emirates. Martin sees the market for new aircraft slowing down in the second half of 2008, even though airlines still need the new, green aircraft and are often grounding older ones that aren’t as fuelefficient. But BOC Aviation’s business is finding no difficulty in raising capital for investment in new jets. BOC already owns $6 billion worth of aircraft that are under management, and last year the Bank of China provided $1 billion more for new investments. Being owned by the second largest bank in the world that already has invested $10 billion in the commercial aircraft market turns out to be a very good thing. In beginning of 2008 BOC has had a banner half-year by handling more purchases and leaseback agreements than it has in four years. The company has been profitable every year since its inception in 1996. BOC Aviation is headquartered in Singapore. —David Hughes they just don’t have experience with the complexity of Western organizations. A wave of retirements is adding additional pressure.” Complete results of the H&S/TeamSAI survey will be revealed at AVIATION WEEK’s Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul North America Conference & Exhibition, scheduled for April 21-23 at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Dallas, Texas. —Paul Richfield Thales Raytheon Systems Does Software Heavy-Lifting No one ever said that designing software to hanin addition to some contractors. dle the air defense of NATO’s European nations The project brings together the resources and their command and control centers would of Thales and Raytheon, two of the largest be easy, and Thales Raytheon Systems has defense electronics companies in the world. been developing 13 million lines of computer Both are also major players in the civil air traffic code over the past nine years to do the job. control scene, and Raytheon also has the forNowadays, air defense specialists want what mer Hughes Aircraft air defense business unit every other computer-user in the world wants in Fullerton, California working on the program. when it comes to doing any type of job—intuBack in the 1990s, Hughes completed the then itive man-machine interfaces and more state-of-the-art $1 billion Peace Shield air automation to make an incredibly complex series defense system for Saudia Arabia. This system of tasks easy to do. used more than 1 million lines of code, which That’s why Thales Raytheon Systems, a at the time was considered a huge software projjoint venture formed by the two companies ect. In fact, Boeing was the first contractor on in 2001, has more human factors engineerthe Peace Shield program, and the Saudis ing experts working on the 800 million-euro turned the project over to Hughes after the proNATO Air Command & Control System Level gram ran into trouble. of Capability 1 contract than on any previous Thales Raytheon Systems is preparing for the type of air defense system ever built. first factory system test of a fully integrated ACSS “The size of the software system. Four more validation program exploded, especially tests are planned with France, with the requirements of the Germany, Italy and Belgium man-machine interface,” after that. And while the new coupled with the need for a ACSS system has a deploywide range of functions, says able version, it will take several Michel Mathieu, CEO of years of working with the new Thales Raytheon Systems. equipment before an actual The joint venture has about deployment is possible—to 1,600 people working for it Behind it is 13 million lines of code. Afghanistan, for example. www.aviationweek.com/shownews July 17, 2008 19 http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews

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