In late April, Eclipse Aerospace Inc. received the federal stamp of approval to start producing new jets.
Now if only it could get the same stamp from its controlling investor United Technologies Corp.
As it nears completion of its gargantuan, $16.5 billion acquisition of Goodrich Corp., UTC has been pawning off assets to raise cash for the deal, including Rocketdyne, a manufacturer of rocket engines, and Clipper Windpower, a maker of wind turbines.
Two years after UTC subsidiary Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. acquired a significant stake in Albuquerque, N.M.-based Eclipse ”“ with Sikorsky President Jeff Pino an enamored owner of one of the company”™s “very light jets” ”“ UTC has not stated any plans to put Eclipse onto the auction block as it has done with Clipper and Rocketdyne.
In an April conference call, however, a senior UTC executive painstakingly blocked any thought of additional funding into new production of Eclipse aircraft, which has been on hiatus since a 2009 bankruptcy.
CFO Greg Hayes bristled after being asked by an analyst about UTC”™s investment in Eclipse against divestments such as Rocketdyne.
“Can I make it very clear? We”™re not investing any more money in Eclipse,” Hayes said. “We did make a small investment ”“ less than $25 million ”“ in Eclipse, really to service the aftermarket of the aircraft. I think there is about 300 of those airplanes that have been delivered. But we are not in the light-jet business if you will. We”™re in the aftermarket business supporting the planes that are out there, but we”™re not in the manufacturing business for light jets.”
Stratford-based Sikorsky was one of two UTC divisions to see a sharp drop in first-quarter sales, along with UTC Climate, Controls and Security. UTC found a buyer in Comvest last month for its U.S. fire and security business. UTC had pieced the business together from the acquisition of Red Hawk Security Systems and other companies over several years.
Only in 2010, Pino wanted to restart Eclipse production, seeing opportunities to leverage Sikorsky”™s supplier network and sales expertise.
“After I flew the Eclipse jet, I said this is (too) amazing a plane to not be in production,” Pino said at the time. “If you think about our strengths, which is putting together a supply chain and building stuff, I thought, ”˜What a great possible combination.”™ So we invested, we”™ve got all of our supply chain and operations professionals evaluating the business case to launch the jet again.”
If UTC does not see the business case, the Eclipse remains a singular engineering feat, winning the 2005 Robert J. Collier Trophy bestowed by the National Aeronautic Association as the greatest advance in aviation that year. Last year”™s Collier award recognized the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, with Sikorsky winning the 2010 award for its X2 high-speed helicopter.
From a production standpoint, for now Eclipse remains stuck on the tarmac.
“It is an amazing personal piece of transportation, I can attest to that,” Pino said.
