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Just months into the job as Sikorsky Aircraft Corp president in 2006, Jeffrey Pino landed one of the Stratford-based manufacturer”™s helicopters at the Farnborough International Air Show in the United Kingdom.
Before long, things really took off.
As the biennial Farnborough show ”“ the world”™s largest ”“ returns in mid-July, the aerospace industry in Connecticut and elsewhere will provide an update on how sales fare in the midst of the aviation industry grounding routes amid high fuel prices.
In its 60th year, the 2008 Farnborough International Air Show is shaping up as the largest ever, with some 1,500 companies expected to exhibit, up 5 percent from 2006.
Airlines and manufacturers typically use the show to reveal massive new contracts: some $40 billion in sale agreements were reached at the 2006 show; Fairfield-based General Electric Co. alone announced orders in excess of $2.5 billion for its GE Aviation engines and related systems. GE could not get enough of the Farnborough scene ”“ the following January it announced a $4.8 billion agreement to purchase Smiths Aerospace based there.
(GE Aviation last week promoted David Joyce as CEO of GE Aviation, replacing Scott Donnelly who left to become chief operating officer at Providence, R.I.-based aerospace company Textron Inc.).
In advance of the mid-July show, several companies have hinted at placing massive orders, including International Lease Finance Corp., which was contemplating a purchase of 300 passenger jets from Boeing Co. and Airbus. At the 2006 show, ILFC announced $750 million in orders from GE; at the 2007 Paris Air Show, which is held on alternate years, IFLC ordered more than 60 Boeing jets in a contract valued at nearly $9 billion.
Analysts say the purchases are being driven by airlines”™ desire to offload some capital costs to leasing companies like IFLC (GE also has an aircraft leasing arm), but airlines are showing evidence of buying too ”“ Ethiad Airways, the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates, indicated plans last week to purchase between 50 and 100 passenger jets at Farnborough.
Sikorsky did not make any major customer announcements at the 2006 show. At the time, the company was still reeling from a six-week labor strike that year that prompted parent company United Technologies Corp. to dispatch current CEO Louis Chenevert to resuscitate Sikorsky”™s operations.
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UTC”™s aviation engine subsidiary Pratt & Whitney, a GE Aviation competitor, also counts on the show to spur sales.
Under Pino ”“ himself a former sales and marketing executive at Textron”™s Bell Helicopter unit ”“ Sikorsky has reinvigorated sales, however, regularly exceeding $1 billion in revenue in recent quarters.
Sikorsky is fresh off a contract to supply up to a dozen helicopters to Brazil”™s navy, a contract that could hit nearly $200 million.
Crowds flocked to Sikorsky”™s pavilion at a Houston aviation show earlier this year when the company displayed its newfangled helicopter under development, which features a rear propeller configured like that on a prop plane. The propeller is designed to increase the speed of the aircraft far in excess of conventional helicopters, and Sikorsky is counting on the design to drive sales in future years.
The company has indicated plans to test fly the ”™copter later this year.
Farnborough has been the setting for several milestones in aviation history, including the1949 introduction of the De Havilland Comet, the world”™s first jet airliner; the 1970 debut of the Concorde, the first supersonic passenger jet; and the 1984 flight of the Russian Mil Mi-26 Halo, the world”™s largest helicopter.
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