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Jumbo jets program nets bidders

By Li Xiang (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-27 16:19

Honeywell Aerospace staff and clients pose in front of a Gulfstream G550 business jet at the company's recent flight demonstration in Shanghai. Honeywell Aerospace wants to become a partner in China's transition from a customer to manufacturer of commercial jets. [File photo]

China's goal to produce its own jumbo jets is attracting the attention of foreign companies eager to become partners in the endeavor.

Honeywell Aerospace is among those companies hoping to become a partner in China's switch from customer to manufacturer of commercial jets and large passenger airlines.

Honeywell Aerospace, a leading supplier of integrated avionics, engines, systems and services to airlines and airplane manufacturers, is bidding to become a part of China's C-919 program.

The C-919 program is expected to produce a first jumbo jet by 2014.

"Like lots of other companies, we are competing for the opportunity to participate in the program," said Mark Howes, president of Honeywell Aerospace for the Asia-Pacific.

Howes said the company is bidding to provide six program components: the auxiliary power unit, environmental control system, wheels and brakes, lighting, avionics system and flight control equipment.

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If it wins the bid, Honeywell will partner with Aviation Industry Corp of China (AVIC) and Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (COMAC), two major players in China's aviation industry.

Also participating in the program are local aircraft manufacturers in Shanghai, Nanjing and Xi'an.

Honeywell Aerospace held flight demonstrations in six Chinese cities this month to display its safety technologies for commercial and regional aircraft.

"We are displaying currently what is probably the most advanced cockpit in the world," Howes said.

"Part of the intention here is also to demonstrate the viability of our systems for general aviation, business jets and helicopter applications," Howes said.

Honeywell Aerospace is competing with international aviation giants such as Rockwell Collin, Hamilton Sundstrand and General Electric (GE).

"We tend to be pretty straightforward and say what we can do," Howes said. "We don't commit to things we don't think we can do."

The worldwide economic recession has had a major effect on the global aviation industry, causing a slowdown in flight hours and also a dramatic reduction in orders for commercial jets in the United States and Europe.

China's aviation industry has grown despite the recession and now ranks only behind the United States.

China will add up to 3,700 new airplanes from last year through 2027, according to a forecast by The Boeing Company.

China also plans to spend about $70 billion to build nearly 100 new airports and upgrade dozens more by 2020, Forbes magazine recently reported.

In a strategic response to these trends, Honeywell Aerospace moved its regional headquarters from Singapore to Shanghai in 2007.

The company also established a leadership team to make China a strategic focus of its global business.

"China is unique. There is a clear national commitment to the aerospace industry," Howes said.

"Not many places in the world have that combination of the intention to proceed with all of those platforms, the ability to make the investment and the open call for companies around the world to come and participate," Howes said.

While rapidly expanding its sourcing and manufacturing base in China, Honeywell Aerospace is also building a big engineering workforce in China, Howes said.

The team now includes 250 people who are based in Shanghai, but it will soon increase to 400, he said.

"We are doing hundreds of millions of dollars in sales, manufacturing and sourcing in China," Howes said.

"Our strategic plan calls for us to increase that number substantially," he added.