A Sample Feature From Aviation News

Canada - The 'Quiet' Aerospace Leader

Above: Bombardier’s extensive Dorval, Quebec factory. Below: Map showing the main areas of aerospace development in Canada.

Canada is one of the largest and most diverse suppliers to the world’s aerospace industries. From advanced composites through regional jets, to some of the most complex simulators available, this leading member of the British Commonwealth is the subject of the following wide-ranging review. It has been compiled by Bob Millichap who made visits to some of the country’s main aeronautical companies to learn how the industry is responding to the requirements of an increasingly global customer base.

Bombardier is currently faced with the crucial decision on whether to finance the development of the CSeries airliner (below) to replace the current CRJ700 and 900 ranges (above), or leave the regional jet market.

It is not generally realised that just two weeks after Britain’s Comet 1 flew into history as the world’s first jet airliner, an exactly similar accomplishment unobtrusively took place on the other side of the Atlantic. On August 10, 1949 another completely different four-jet passenger aircraft also took to the skies and, almost without fanfare, opened a similarly revolutionary door to the jet age.

But it wasn’t the usual North American powerhouse of aviation - the United States - that achieved this notable distinction. Instead it was Canada, a country that rapidly expanded its aero-engineering skills in WWII and established a world-class aviation industry through the production of thousands of allied military aircraft. As it went through this metamorphism, it quietly honed an expertise in cutting-edge aviation technology that, by the late 1940s, got it to within a whisker of being the first to make jet travel a reality. The result was the Avro Canada Jetliner, a 50-seat medium-range airliner that, in effect, was a precursor of the regional jet decades ahead of its time.

Yet while the Comet achieved worldwide acclaim as the pioneer of a whole new era of air transport, the Jetliner was sidelined into relative obscurity. Although Canada had also opened a viable pathway to jet-powered passenger flight, it seemed that the rest of the world had barely noticed. The Canadian industry’s expertise had simply not attracted the acclamation it deserved.

Today, more than half a century further on, with the modern aerospace industry dominated by the USA, Britain and France, Canada’s wide-ranging and innovative capabilities still tend to be overlooked. The fact that the former dominion not only has an impressively wide across-the-board aerospace capability but is still very much at the forefront of aeronautical innovation, seems to be largely unappreciated.

It truth, though, it is a key contributor to the global aerospace market. With more than 400 companies, 79,000 employees and sales of C$21 billion in 2002, the Canadian aerospace industry is the fourth largest in the world and boasts a spectrum of research, development and manufacturing facilities that compare extremely favourably with those of the ‘big three’.

Although the sheer scale of investment that aerospace requires is now forcing even the largest of international companies into more closely defined areas of specialisation, the Canadian industry foreshadowed this trend some years ago when it began focusing on an overall strategy of identifying niche markets and then exploiting them quickly enough to become the dominant supplier.
Perhaps the most high-profile example of this development was Bombardier Aerospace’s decision in the late 1980s to capitalise on the success of its well-established turboprop commuter airliner programmes and jump ahead with development of the regional jet concept. At the time, this was seen as an extremely high-risk venture and was widely criticised as being economically impractical, particularly in the light of burgeoning fuel costs and the fact that over short stage lengths jets didn’t appear to offer much of a time-saving advantage over turboprops. Nevertheless, by seizing an opportunity to adapt its highly successful series of Challenger corporate jets into a family of 50 to 90-seat jetliners, Bombardier started a veritable small-jet revolution that has since seen it amass almost 1,400 orders and claim a healthy 47% share of the world’s regional jet market.

At the same time, with careful development of its Dash-8 turboprop commuter-liner, the company has still managed to maintain dominance in the parallel but declining prop-jet market. Even though its regional jet success was a key factor in reducing airline turboprop demand and forcing many world-leading propeller airliner manufacturers to leave the business altogether, Bombardier bucked the trend and not only managed to maintain a continuing presence in the field but is now even planning to increase Dash-8 production by more than 50% next year.

Other thriving examples of this niche market success are Pratt and Whitney Canada with one-third of the world’s small gas turbine engine business, CAE with an 80% share of all simulator sales and 70% of the visual simulation sector, and Bell Helicopter Textron which has entrusted its entire commercial helicopter output to Canada.

This philosophy is not just confined to the big manufacturers either. MacDonald Dettwiler Robotics is the sole supplier of the Space Shuttle Remote Manipulator Arm and is working on a range of similar units for the International Space Station, the planned robotic servicing mission for the Hubble Space Telescope and other near and deep space projects.

Further examples include the Liburdi Group which has cornered a leading role in the development of metallurgical processes for reliable analysis and refurbishment of gas turbines, Luxell that is producing electronic flight displays that are fast becoming established as industry leaders, and Atlantis which has established a new market for specialist simulators that conventional systems can’t adequately replicate.

These cases, however, just scratch at the surface of a niche market culture that stretches all the way down to the smallest of companies. Some offer exclusive services or products like MDS-PRAD, a joint Canadian-Russian company that has dominated the market for engine fan, compressor and turbine blade erosion resistant coatings. Others involved in more routine mass production are reacting to demand from major manufacturers for a reduced supplier base and forming partnerships that create specialist ‘favoured-source’ skill centres. Airframe component maker, Cyclone Manufacturing, is typical and is actively leading a strategic collective of similarly sized but complementary producers that together are taking on more risk-sharing responsibilities and forging an exclusive pocket of collective manufacturing expertise.

Behind this commercial activity is a highly sophisticated research and development structure that in 2002 invested C$1 billion through various federal and provincial government bodies. These included the Canadian National Research Centre’s Institute for Aerospace Research that boasts 600,000 sq ft of facilities, eight research aircraft, eight wind-tunnels and a range of full-scale structural test rigs and engine test cells; Technology Partnerships Canada that provides repayable federal government funding for research, development and innovation; and the Consortium of Research and Aerospace Innovation in Canada which co-ordinates R&D at a provincial level by linking industry with universities and engineering schools. Industry-set but university-conducted research programmes also provide a valuable conduit for channelling graduate trainees into aerospace employment and all these activities get active government encouragement through various tax incentives.

Air Canada Technical Services

Above: One of some 25 Bombardier CRJ100ERs flown by Air Canada. (All photos, author except where stated).

After a difficult period in bankruptcy protection, Air Canada has emerged completely revitalised by C$2bn in annual cost savings, huge changes to outmoded working practices and the creation of separate and independent profit centres under a new Air Canada Enterprises umbrella. Its new business climate is well exemplified by the airline’s maintenance, repair and overhaul arm that now operates independently as Air Canada Technical Services. Some C$700m in annual revenue now comes through dealing with its parent airline as a separate commercial customer while a further C$300m derives from third-party work that has increased by 150% over the past five years . A complete revamp of operating procedures has allowed two Boeing 767 lines to be amalgamated and reduced overall downtimes by almost one third while, in just 18 months, the work schedules for Airbus A320 heavy H-2, 26,000 man-hour checks have been cut from 73 days to an average of just 42. Changes in employee working agreements, in which shift patterns have been altered and overtime is now exclusively paid for by ‘time off in lieu’, have heralded huge cost savings as well. In one example, the complete overhaul cost of a CF34 engine has been reduced by 35% from C$1.2m to C$780,000. Some C$40m has been invested in new equipment and facilities over the past three years. This has resulted in the company pioneering the introduction of a Honeywell pay-as-you-go consumable spares system in which items are dispensed from cabinets similar to snack vending machines and only charged for when an operator actually takes an item for use. Savings of C$18m are being achieved as a result. Another major investment has been made in developing the Sinex FleetCycle computerised production management system which provides real-time tracking of work in progress on each individual aircraft in the hangars. Computer consoles located all over the work areas allow any employee from top management to the most junior of workers to check progress and identify up-coming problems early while links to the internet allow customers to access the information in the same way. Air Canada Technical Services operates four main airframe engineering centres in Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver. Together they offer six wide-body and 16 narrow body maintenance and repair lines in 460,000sq ft of hangar space. In addition 400 engines of up to 100,000lb static thrust can be handled each year at an engine maintenance centre in Montreal while a 63,700sq ft paint facility in Toronto can cater for aircraft as large as the B747-400.

Canadian Contracted Flying Training and Support

Since 1992 all Canadian Armed Forces initial pilot training (IPT) and advanced multi-engined and helicopter instruction has been privatised under the Contracted Flying Training and Support (CFTS) programme. Bids for a renewed contract are currently being evaluated but at the moment Bombardier Aerospace Defence Services is operating the scheme at Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. Located on a former RCAF airfield that was a major Commonwealth Air Training Scheme base in WW2, the company operates fleets of 12 Slingsby T-67C Fireflys (seen above), eight Beech King Air C90s and 13 Bell JetRangers and handles a throughput of 300 students per year. IPT trainees come with 4-5 hours of simulator time at Trenton Aircrew Selection Centre and undertake 14 hours of initial training to solo standard on the T-67. They then go through a further 27 hours of T-67 flying to qualify for advanced training at Moose Jaw where streaming takes place for either fast jet training at Cold Lake or multi-engined or helicopter instruction back at Portage la Prairie. Each IPT course consists of 130 Canadian students with seven foreign trainee pilots on military training assistance programmes. Although all the instructors are civilians, the course director is a serving officer and day-to-day life mirrors strict military training routines. The multi-engined and helicopter courses are run by military instructors and mix 120 hours on the T-67 with 70 hours on the King Air or 95 hours on the Jet Ranger. Some 163 students go through this training each year. Bombardier leases the four-runway airfield from Southport Aerospace Centre, an unusual non-profit organisation that arose out of the local community when the RCAF base was threatened with complete disbandment after it was closed. In a classic case of a township fighting to protect its micro-economy, the local populace banded together to persuade the authorities that they could maintain the airfield as a going concern and won government approval to run it as a community enterprise. Now it is a thriving training and business centre with CFTS, a Stevenson Aviation and Aerospace Training college campus and commercial companies on site. Maintenance of all CFTS aircraft is subcontracted to Fields Aviation while air traffic services are provided by Serco in the first private ATC operation to be approved by Transport Canada. The new C$1bn CFTS contract will run for 22 years and the winning bidder was due to be announced as Aviation News went to press. Bombardier is competing with Allied Wings Flight Training Services, a consortium of companies with experience in all aspects of pilot training and airfield operations. Whichever is declared the winner, the operation will continue at Portage la Prairie but in a greatly expanded form with fleets of new aircraft in all the training categories. Both are planning to replace the T-67 fleet with Grob 120s as they are better suited to the specifications of the new contract and the twin fleet will be renewed with glass cockpit King Airs. The Jet Rangers will remain but they will be complemented by as yet unspecified new twin helicopters.

For the rest of this article please see the March 2005 issue.