Category Archives: aircraft manufacturers

Piper Aircraft to hold Wichita engineering job fair

Tuesday7:30 a.m.

Piper Aircraft representatives will be in Wichita Friday and Saturday to host an engineering job fair.

The  Vero Beach, Fla.-based planemaker is seeking engineers for a variety of positions, it says, including airframe design, stress analysis, electrical and avionics design, mechanical systems, pwerplant design, instrumentation, aerodynamics or performance and manufacturing/industrial. Piper is also looking for a tool designer, estimator and director of manufacturing. The company has intermediate, senior and lead positions available.

The job fair will be held 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on November 20 and 21st at the Broadview Hotel at 400 W. Douglas. The company says to e-mail a resume to wichitajobfair@piper.com to be considered for a scheduled interview.

By Molly McMillin | Filed under aircraft manufacturers | Comments (0)

Machinists president: Call White House to urge Obama to visit Wichita

Oct. 20, 20099:54 a.m.

ORLANDO — As the National Business Aviation Association’s annual convention officially opened this morning, Machinists international president Tom Buffenbarger urged hundreds of attendees at a kickoff meeting to call the White House’s switchboard and urge President Obama to visit  Wichita.

It’s important for the president to see how just how much the general aviation industry has been devastated  by Obama’s and members of Congress’ negative remarks about business jets, Buffenbarger said.

The negative perception that  business jets are “fancy toys for fat cats,” have had an effect, Buffenbarger said. “Business aviation is vital to America’s economic recovery.”

“We watched as the president took his shots,” he said. “Let’s just say he owes us a visit.”

Buffenbarger has twice invited Obama to Wichita.

“With your help, I believe we can make that happen,” he said.

He urged them to call the switchboard at 202-456-1414 and leave a message for Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s chief of staff.

“Make it brief; make it businesslike; but make it clear,” Buffenbarger said.

The visit is imperative. “This industry hangs in the balance,” he said.

By Molly McMillin | Filed under Uncategorized, aircraft manufacturers, unions | Comments (6)

Cessna: Market is beginning to thaw

Oct. 19, 20093:09 p.m.

ORLANDO — Cessna Aircraft drew a standing-room-only crowd to its news conference at NBAA this afternoon.

There’s some encouraging developments out there to suggest that the business jet market might be starting to move in a positive direction, said Cessna CEO Jack Pelton.

Financing is more readily available, used aircraft inventory is declining and prices for used aircraft have risen for the first time in several quarters. Usage for the Citation fleet has stopped dropping and bookings for maintenance work are moving upward.

In addition, single-engine retail sales have been strong in recent weeks.

Still, it will take time for the market to return. Cessna projects lower deliveries next year over 2009.

Pelton said he thinks the company is sized correctly for the next three years of deliveries.  Cessna has cut half of its work force in the past year, the most painful development of the economic crisis, Pelton said.

By Molly McMillin | Filed under Cessna, aircraft manufacturers | Comments (0)

Embraer announces new jet

Oct. 19, 200912:16 p.m.

Embraer unveils jet

ORLANDO — Embraer served champagne to celebrate the unveiling of a new large business jet, the Legacy 650, at a media briefing this afternoon at the National Business Aviation Association convention. It’s the sixth business jet the company has launched in the past four years. The $29.5 million plane will carry 13 passengers and have a range of 3,900 nautical miles.

The plane is on track to be certified in the second half of 2010.  The company does not yet have a launch customer for the aircraft.

Embraer started development of the jet in 2008, before the economic crisis hit.

The Brazil-based company went forward with the aircraft, seeing it as an opportunity in the face of the crisis, company officials said.

“In 2005, we created a vision to become a major player by 2015 in (the business jet market),” said Embraer vice president of executive jets Luis Carlos Affonso. “This move is pretty much consistent with this.”

– Molly McMillin

By Dan Loving | Filed under aircraft manufacturers | Comments (2)

Hawker Beechcraft ready for battle

Oct. 19, 20099:02 a.m.

ORLANDO — Hawker Beechcraft executives and personnel showed up at the first press conference of the day at the world’s largest business jet show dressed in military flight suits.

The aviation industry is in a “battle situation. And it could be a long conflict,” the company’s CEO Bill Boisture said.

“We’re on a mission,” Boisture said. “Our mission is to prevail against unprecedented market forces; our mission today is to counter attack.”

Boisture doesn’t expect the market to rebound until 2012 or 2013.

But the company’s optimism and toughness is “best expressed by saying, ‘We are surrounded and tackling on all fronts…. We have plenty of ammo.”

That ammunition includes its skilled work force, business aviation product lines, its global support and its military trainer business, officials said.

By Molly McMillin | Filed under Hawker Beechcraft, aircraft manufacturers | Comments (0)

Hawker Beechcraft: NBAA will be telling

Oct. 19, 20098:53 a.m.

ORLANDO — Interest in new aircraft is picking up and — after a year of cancellations and deferrals — the order book is starting to stabilize, three Hawker Beechcraft executives said this morning.

I caught up with the HBC execs after the company’s press conference this morning at the Orange County Convention Center. HBC kicked off a day of press briefings.

They said this NBAA convention will be telling.

August and September were the best months of the year, said Brad Hatt, head of commercial aircraft.

“We can concentrate on selling rather than preserving,” said Brad Stancil, the company’s vice president of sales for the Western Hemisphere.

“Large Fortune 100 companies came back into the market in the last 60 days,” Hatt said.

 ”They have been absent up until now,” Stancil added.

The international market is much stronger than the domestic one, with 70 percent to 80 percent of sales coming from outside the U.S.

Several international customers are making the trip to Orlando for this week’s show, said Sean McGeough, vice president of sales for the Eastern Hemisphere said.

Whether that interest will turn into sales is too soon to say, they said.

By Molly McMillin | Filed under Hawker Beechcraft, aircraft manufacturers, aviation industry | Comments (0)

Analyst: ‘Glass half full for aerospace as 2010 recovery beckons’

Oct. 15, 200911:32 a.m.

With one quarter left to the year, Rob Stallard, an analyst with Macquarie Securities, expects to see aerospace companies start to “peer out of the trench” at what 2010 may hold.

“We think that there will be some cautious, tentative optimism,” Stallard wrote. One area to watch is the aerospace aftermarket, where continued recovery in the airline sector would support a return to growth next year.

Stallard also expects there to be “widespread suspicion” that production rates for large jets and business jets still need to come down in 2010, even if demand is slowly improving.

By Molly McMillin | Filed under aircraft manufacturers, aviation industry | Comments (0)

Brazil’s Embraer delivers 57 jets in the third quarter

Oct. 7, 20091:42 p.m.

Brazil-based Embraer delivered 57 jets during June, July and August, up over 48 it delivered during the same time a year ago.

Deliveries included 29 commercial jets, 27 business jets and one plane to the defense industry. So far this year, Embraer, based in Sao Jose dos Campos, delivered 153 aircraft.

Deliveries were boosted by growth in shipments of its Phenom 100 entry-level business jet.

Embraer’s backlog totaled $18.6 billion on September 30, down from $19.8 billion on June 30.

By Molly McMillin | Filed under Uncategorized, aircraft manufacturers | Comments (0)

Machinists, Bombardier Learjet in last week of negotiations

Sept. 29, 200911:27 a.m.

The Machinists union and Bombardier Learjet are back at the negotiating table today. Hourly workers who are members of Local Lodge 639 will be able to vote from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday  at the Machinists District Lodge #70 at 3830 S. Meridian.

Health care and job security are two top issues.

“It’s too early to tell,” how the talks will go this week, said Machinists spokesman Bob Wood.

Stay tuned for updates on the talks this week.

By Molly McMillin | Filed under Uncategorized, aircraft manufacturers, unions | Comments (0)

Textron chief Lewis Campbell to retire

Sept. 23, 20094:00 p.m.

campbellLewis Campbell, the chairman and CEO of Cessna’s parent company, Textron Inc., will retire Dec. 1. Textron president Scott Donnelly will assume his position, the company said Thursday.

Campbell, who is 63, will remain as a non-executive chairman of the board at least until the 2011 annual meeting of shareholders, it said. The change is the culmination of a multi-year succession planning process. Campbell has been with Textron 17 years, including 11 years as CEO.

Donnelly joined Textron is June 2008 as chief operating officer and was named president in January. He is the former president and CEO of General Electric’s aviation unit.

By Molly McMillin | Filed under Cessna, aircraft manufacturers | Comments (0)