FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
2002
2002 - 1132.PDF
• Lockheed Martin has named Mike Cosentino as director of Joint Strike Fighter international programmes. Cosentino, for merly deputy programme manager for the C-130J, will take responsibility for overseas sales of the JSF. • American Airlines has promoted former executive vice-president for operations Gerard Arpey to president and chief operating officer. Arpey replaces Bob Baker, who retired last month. • Singapore Airlines' senior vice-president west Asia and Africa, Cedric Foo, has been named as Singapore's minister of state for defence. He will be replaced by Paul Tan, divisional vice-presi dent customer services. Executive vice- president (techni cal) Bey Soo Khiang will take over the personnel department, becoming senior executive vice- president (technical and human resources). • Rinaldo Petrignani, president of Alenia North America and a former Italian ambassador to the USA, will take over as Boeing's vice- president international relations for Italy. Alenia is Boeing's sec ond-largest aerostructures supplier. Meanwhile, Boeing has promoted Roger Krone, vice- president and general manager US Army programmes for its Military Aircraft and Missile Systems division, to vice-presi dent of strategic projects. Patrick Shanahan. vice-president and general manager of the Boeing Commercial Airplanes 757 pro gramme, will replace Krone. BUSINESS UNMANNED SYSTEMS GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC Boeing forecasts lucrative future for new UA/ division Partnerships and acquisitions as well as in-house designs are expected to fuel growth Boeing believes its fledgling Unmanned Systems unit can achieve $1 billion in annual rev enues by the end of the decade. In addition to developing its own designs, the company plans to grow via partnerships and acquisitions among the many firms producing unmanned air vehicles (UAVs). "The UAV market is going to grow, probably at double-digit rates, and conceivably could be $5- 6 billion a year by 2010. It is not unreasonable that we can grow to $1 billion or more by the end of decade," says Mike Heinz, presi dent of the unit, which was formed late last year. Part of Boeing's Military Aircraft & Missile Systems sector, Un manned Systems is focusing on three market segments, says Heinz: combat vehicles; strategic or long- endurance UAVs; and tactical UAVs. The company is developing the US Air Force's unmanned com bat air vehicle (UCAV) and is bid ding to develop the US Navy's UCAV-N and the US Army's un manned combat armed rotorcraft. In the strategic UAV field, Boeing is looking beyond the USAF's Northrop Grumman Global Hawk. Opportunities include a US Air Force Research Laboratory pro gramme looking at a next-genera tion intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance UAV called Sensor- Craft, and a potential requirement for a stealthy long-endurance "son of DarkStar" (the cancelled Lock heed Martin/Boeing reconnais sance UAV programme). Describing the tactical UAV mar ket as "highly fragmented, with dozens of companies and products, many with long experience", Heinz says Boeing "does not intend to compete with them or re-invent the wheel. We will partner companies we think have products that best match the requirements. We will turn them from stovepipe products into integrated systems using our mission management and adaptive autonomous control technology." This will exploit Boeing's UCAV work, using the same algorithms and software, he says. Partnerships and acquisitions will help accelerate Boeing's entry into the unmanned systems mar ket. It has already signed a partner ship agreement with Insitu to develop the SeaScan, a small long- endurance ship-launched UAV. Boeing is looking for other ways to accelerate its market entry, including working to "create op portunities where we see the mili tary or civil customers' needs are not well formulated", says Heinz. Boeing expects its UAV business to take off by the end of the decade APPOINTMENTS Stronger Finmeccanica hires new executives The Italian government has appointed new management at Finmeccanica, the aerospace and defence giant 36.2%-owned by the Italian state. The move came a day after departing president Alberto Lina and chief operating officer Giuseppe Bono announced a €188 million ($164 million) net profit for the group and the first dividend in nine years. The new president and chief executive is Pier Francesco Guar guaglini, now chief executive of the state shipbuilding company Fincantieri, which Guarguaglini has prepared for privatisation. Roberto Testore, former chief exec utive of the automotive division of Fiat, becomes chief operating offi cer. Guarguaglini will deal with strategic affairs such as alliances, while Testore will be more involved with running the company. Guarguaglini's appointment was largely unopposed, but the propo sal of Testore attracted criticism from other parties in the coalition government, as is time at Fiat coin cided with poor results. Their appointments follow strong results for Finmeccanica. Despite a sharp reduction in the financial contribution of the semiconductor giant STMicroelectronics (STM), in which Finmeccanica has a 19% stake, the group made a net profit of €188 million, against €339 million the previous year, on revenues 9% higher at €6.77 billion. New orders worth €7 billion were secured in 2001, bringing the orderbook to a new record of €20.4 billion. The group has also eliminated its €636 million of debt, partly by sell ing 3% of STM, and now has €409 million net cash. It intends to use this for future purchases, with Finmeccanica interested in acquir ing Telespazio, Aermacchi and Marconi Mobile. A further STM sale could be used to finance more acquisitions in Europe and the USA. Finmeccanica's energy, transport and information technology non- core activities will be sold. All three generated profits in 2001. The aero space and defence core businesses, which account for 75% of turnover, were also profitable. 24 9-15 APRIL 2002 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
