'Honeywell open to co-development with Hindustan Aeronautics'

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'Honeywell open to co-development with Hindustan Aeronautics'

C Chitti Pantulu

Saturday, November 21, 2009 3:49 IST

The global business jet sector has seen a 40% drop in delivery from past peak thanks to the economic slowdown. However, Robert A Wilson, president, business & general aviation, Honeywell Aerospace, feels the market will return handsomely in 2011. And most of the new action will be in Asia and neighbouring regions, the senior executive of the $34 billion Honeywell International told DNA C Chitti Pantulu.

<a href='http://ads.indiainfo.com/www/delivery/ck.php?n=a0589706' target='_blank'><img src='http://ads.indiainfo.com/www/delivery/avw.php?zoneid=188&n=a0589706' </td></tr></table> </div> </div> <p>And even though a small market, with its double-digit growth rates, India is an attractive market, he said, while adding that its collaboration with public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) will play a key role in the market. Excerpts from the interview:</EM></p><p><STRONG>Your association with HAL is now 25-years-old. How are you taking it forward?</STRONG><BR>We have a strategic relationship with HAL in business aviation and it has been going extremely well for the past 25 years with 225 engines produced mainly for the Indian air force, navy and coastguard. About a year ago we brought that relationship forward for the manufacture of TPE 331-12 engine for commercial use. We started with kit production and that will migrate to making the parts and assembling them here, and ultimately into making engines to FAA specifications and shipping them from here. We see a strong demand for an engine of this size. The numbers could run into several thousands but much of it depends on how the market evolves. </p><p><STRONG>How are you broadening this relationship? Will it result in further JVs and new ventures?</STRONG><BR>Certainly, this provides the foundation for us to go places. Most of such relationships logically end up in co-development and I would be open to any collaboration and cooperation. I have been discussing with the HAL chairman about such a logical possibility.</p><p><STRONG>Your 2009 business aviation survey shows a short-term blip. Where do you see the demand coming from?</STRONG><BR>We are projecting a 10-year outlook of 11,000 jets at $200 billion value. We are predicting the market will be down 15% next year with a 40% dip in production. We will be back to the 2008 levels of industry output in 2015. When we did the survey globally we saw a strong demand for purchase of new aircraft over the next five years. There is a strong demand in regions like APAC, India, China, and Middle East. But the fact is that purchasing will be put off for 2 to 3 years with a back-ended spurt in the 5 years. Fortunately we have been able to announce significant upgrades, new products and take them to the market. The good news is that business aviation is beginning to see traction over the past 3 months with used aircraft being replaced and the backlog being cleared. But I think it will be in 2011 that business aviation will see outputs increase.</p><p><STRONG>What are you doing for market share in the Asian region?</STRONG><BR>Let me use our example in India. We have increased the number of people on the location, we have increased the sales and support staff in the region. We have added partnerships around maintenance and support through 3 companies in 5 different locations in India supporting Honeywell products, both electrical and mechanical, with more services and spare parts. We are going to put the right level of parts to service India. So for us taking more market share is mainly through services and spares. If you talk about India, the overall business jets market is small. But there is a 10-15% increase in the fleet every year.</p><p><STRONG>Are you also looking at presence in the MRO space?</STRONG><BR>Our business is general business aviation. But as the market expands I would not rule out any possibility in terms of working with partners. Our model for MROs is that we work through channel partners. That is why we set up these partnerships here.</p><p><STRONG>Honeywell's association with India is increasing. How do you see things ahead?</STRONG><BR>We have 2,500 engineers working on state-of-the-art aviation technology in Bangalore and a lot of activity for business aviation is being driven from here. There are three key projects being steered out of Bangalore which speak volumes of the importance of the country to Honeywell. For instance, the flight management system for the next generation Gulfstream G650 aircraft, which will fly in a matter of months, is being driven from here with roughly 300 engineers working on the biggest, fastest and the best business jet of the future, while the centre is also leading the revitalisation of the BendixKing product line of next generation navigation equipment. More significantly, Bangalore is also spearheading an indigenous design for a flight control system for small aircraft which going forward could be built in India. It is significant because flight control technology is controlled in the United States and cannot be brought out unless the government approves it. So it is going to be designed and developed here for several markets.</p></p></p> </div> <div style="clear:both;margin:1em 0 1em 0;background: #fffde5 url('/images/new/icon-tip.gif');background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position: 0.5em .5em;border:1px solid #f5f2c5;padding:0.5em;padding-left:2em;font-size:12px;"> Double click an English word for Macmillan Dictionary definition </div> <div style="text-align:center;clear:both;margin:1em 0 1em 0;background:#e0ebf5;#f4f4f4;color:#444;padding:0.5em;font-size:0.85em;font-family:monospace;"> Copyright permission mandatory to republish this article. <br/>For reprint rights <a href="http://www.3dsyndication.com/browseArticles.aspx" rel="nofollow" target="3ds">click here</a> </div> <a name="share"> <style> #share{clear:both;color:#444;font-size:0.8em;border-top:1px solid #d0d0d0;border-bottom:1px solid #d0d0d0;padding:0.3em;padding-top:0.4em;} #share a{color:#a0a0a0;} #share:hover a{color:#444;} #share img{border:1px solid #acacac;margin-left:10px;margin-right:5px;width:16px;height:16px;filter:Alpha(Opacity=80);-moz-opacity: 0.8;} #share:hover img{filter:Alpha(Opacity=100);-moz-opacity: 1;} </style> <div id="share"> <a href="http://www.digg.com/submit?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dnaindia.com%2Fmoney%2Finterview_honeywell-open-to-co-development-with-hindustan-aeronautics_1314386&title=%27Honeywell+open+to+co-development+with+Hindustan+Aeronautics%27" onMouseDown="return tkbk('202')"><img src="http://www.digg.com/favicon.ico"/>digg</a> <a href="http://reddit.com/submit?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dnaindia.com%2Fmoney%2Finterview_honeywell-open-to-co-development-with-hindustan-aeronautics_1314386&title=%27Honeywell+open+to+co-development+with+Hindustan+Aeronautics%27" onMouseDown="return tkbk('203')"><img src="http://reddit.com/favicon.ico"/>reddit</a> <a href="http://www.google.com/bookmarks/mark?op=add&bkmk=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dnaindia.com%2Fmoney%2Finterview_honeywell-open-to-co-development-with-hindustan-aeronautics_1314386&title=%27Honeywell+open+to+co-development+with+Hindustan+Aeronautics%27" onMouseDown="return tkbk('205')"><img src="http://www.google.com/favicon.ico"/>google</a> <a href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dnaindia.com%2Fmoney%2Finterview_honeywell-open-to-co-development-with-hindustan-aeronautics_1314386&t=%27Honeywell+open+to+co-development+with+Hindustan+Aeronautics%27" onMouseDown="return tkbk('206')"><img src="http://www.facebook.com/favicon.ico"/>Facebook</a> <a href="http://www.myspace.com/Modules/PostTo/Pages/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dnaindia.com%2Fmoney%2Finterview_honeywell-open-to-co-development-with-hindustan-aeronautics_1314386&t=%27Honeywell+open+to+co-development+with+Hindustan+Aeronautics%27" onMouseDown="return tkbk('207')"><img src="http://www.myspace.com/favicon.ico"/>MySpace</a> <a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dnaindia.com%2Fmoney%2Finterview_honeywell-open-to-co-development-with-hindustan-aeronautics_1314386&title=%27Honeywell+open+to+co-development+with+Hindustan+Aeronautics%27" onMouseDown="return tkbk('208')"><img src="http://del.icio.us/favicon.ico"/>delicious</a> <span style="float:inline;position:relative;top:5px;margin-left:10px;"> <script type="text/javascript"> tweetmeme_url = "http://www.dnaindia.com/money/interview_honeywell-open-to-co-development-with-hindustan-aeronautics_1314386"; 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