Business Aviation booming despite US economic slowdown

Business aviation seems to have decoupled from the tight dependency it once had on the fortunes of the US economy. Despite the slowdown of the US economy (annual growth of only 0.9% reported in Q1 '08), the rest of the world - and in particular the world's emerging markets - are reaping the benefits of globalization and continue experiencing robust economic growth in the high single or even double digits.



Record 2007 business aircraft deliveries and upbeat forecasts for the coming years are being reported by most OEMs. While a mild slowdown is predicted after 2010-11 based on previous economic patterns, continued orders from areas such as the BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India, and China - are fueling the market's optimism.



Consequently, a number of aerospace companies have recently announced plans to develop new business airplane models, which bodes well for the aviation job market in the years ahead. This comes in the context of a move to the right in Boeing's and Airbus' plans to revamp their respective single aisle offerings.



Among new airplane models in development, Bombardier launched the Learjet 85 in February '08 - a clean-sheet design in the mid-size market that will compete against the G150, Cessna Citation Sovereign, and Hawker 900XP. In partnership with Grob Aerospace - the German composite specialist that is building the prototype, Bombardier went for an all-composite aircraft design for the Learjet 85, which will allow it to reduce the aiplane's total cost of ownership. The company is hiring in a variety of disciplines - Systems Safety, Loads Analysis, Stress, Landing Gear, Flight Controls, etc. - at its facilities in Wichita, KS.



In the super mid-size market, Dassault started development last year on the SMS/5X that is due to enter into service in 2014. The SMS is intended to replace the Falcon 50EX - a model that ceased production in early 2008. The SMS will be assembled next to the Falcon7X expansion line at the new company facilities in Merignac, near Bordeaux. EU citizenship, fluency in French and English and expertise in one of the following areas - Mechanical Engineering, Business Inteligence, Project Management, Software Engineering - may be a good start for anyone interested to work on the SMS.



Moving to the upper market segment, Gulfstream launched in April '08 the ultra-long-range G650, another clean-sheet design that has raised a great deal of interest in the market place, in particular from China and the Middle East. With deliveries planned to start in 2012, the G650 will be flying at M0.925 and take over from Cessna Citation X the bragging rights for the world's fastest civil jet aircraft. The company has embarked on a facility expansion program at its facilities in Savanah, Georgia and is hiring both permament and contract for positions in Airplane Performance, Structural Design, Composite Stress Analyst, Systems Safety Engineering, MRB, etc.

Such programs drive additional development work for Tier 1 and 2 suppliers of aircraft systems, including state-of-the-art avionics systems, such as fly-by-wire flight control systems, flight and head-up displays, flight management systems, or autopilot systems. Companies such as Honeywell, Rockwell Collins, or GE Aviation are the beneficiary of such growth trends in business aviation.


Cessna, Embraer, Eclipse - have their own development programs in work that target specific market niches. When the surge in demand for VIP versions of Boeing and Airbus models are added - and, with that the growth in completion center/STC type work that it entails - one has good reasons to remain optimistic about the prospects of business aviation in the years ahead.


MG