Global buzz filling the air

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This article was published 22/07/2010 (5906 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There was some intercontinental buzz this week for the Canadian aerospace industry with the announcement last Friday that Canada will spend about $9 billion on 65 new high-tech fighter jets.

That came just days before the start of this week’s Farnborough International Airshow in England.

With more than 1,000 exhibitors from 40 countries and more than 150,000 visitors, the big air show just outside of London serves to jack up the energy level for a high-value sector of the economy in places around the world — including Manitoba.

A modest contingent of companies are showing the Manitoba colours at Farnborough along with Dave Chomiak, the province’s minister of innovation, energy and mines.

Regular attendees like Stan-dardAero and Bristol Aerospace are there as well as the unmanned aerial vehicle maker MicroPilot.

For the first time, representatives from the Global Aerospace Centre for Icing and Environmental Research Inc. (GLACIER) were also at the event. GLACIER is the $50-million cold-weather aircraft engine-testing facility nearing completion in Thompson.

Reached in London, an official connected to that facility said progress is on target to test its first engine — a Rolls-Royce Trent 900 used on the large Airbus 380 — in early September.

There are expectations in the local industry that this greenfield development will generate additional spinoff investments in the province. As well, its order book will provide incremental growth for the sector from Day 1.

After suffering as badly as any sector through the recent global recession, whatever deals that could be inked in England were seen as evidence momentum in the global aerospace industry was headed in the right direction.

The Associated Press reported that $28 billion of new plane orders were signed in Farnborough, a welcome increase from the $7 billion at last year’s Paris air show (the Paris and Farnborough shows occur in alternating years) but a far cry from the close to $90 billion in deals in 2008.

Of the two major international commercial rivals — Boeing and Airbus — Manitoba’s economy has much more riding on Boeing.

Both scored their share of sales successes in Farnborough, but Boeing probably achieved a psychological victory by having one of only four test models of its lightweight, fuel-efficient 787 on hand for the international industry to witness with their own eyes.

Boeing’s Winnipeg plant is on its annual two-week summer shutdown, but its production schedule for the thousands of composite parts benefits from just about every new order for a Boeing plane.

But probably the most significant news for the provincial aerospace industry was announced last Friday in Ottawa that the Canadian Forces will buy 65 Joint Strike Fighter F-35 Lightning IIs to replace its existing fleet of CF-18s.

That’s because Bristol Aerospace has committed more than $100 million to qualify as a supplier and is already making the horizontal tail components for the multi-role stealth air-to-ground fighter jet.

Canada has been a partner in the development of the F-35 since 1997, but Don Boitson, Bristol’s general manager and a vice-president with parent company Magellan Aerospace, said the commitment from Canada to buy the jets bumps up the opportunity quotient dramatically.

“Our volumes would have been limited going forward if Canada was not on board,” Boitson said. “But for Canada to sign up at such an early point gets all the Canadian companies on a better footing, for sure.”

There are close to 90 Canadian companies supplying to the Joint Strike Fighter project and Magellan is one of the largest.

Bristol has committed about $120 million to retool its plant and has a 140,000-square-foot expansion northwest of its existing facilities in the planning stage.

While volumes for the JSF parts are at low-rate initial production, Boitson said that will ramp up significantly over the next four to five years and become a significant part of the Winnipeg plant’s production mix.

Now that Canada is more formally committed, it puts Bristol’s own production outlook for the next few years on a much more solid momentum.

That means more security for Bristol’s 600-plus jobs, regardless of whether some of its other legacy contracts wind down over the next few years.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca