As Farnborough participants probe Parker Aerospace's A380 equipment on display here—fuel systems, engine monitoring equipment and cabin video observation equipment—company president Bob Barker will most likely be conducting some inquiries of his own. His Irvine, California-based systems engineering shop and manufacturer of hydraulic and pneumatic components and fuel systems for commercial and military applications has aspirations of assimilating like-minded forward-thinking companies, particularly those with advanced technologies.
"We are a willing buyer with a balance sheet to do that," says Barker. As an example of that strategy, Parker last November acquired for an undisclosed amount the 10-person aircraft business unit of Massachusetts-based Control By Light (CBL) Systems Corporation, maker of specialty fiber optic electronics for communications and control. Barker says the CBL's hi-tech expertise will be key to competing for contracts like the A380 cabin monitoring system, an option that will include a network of between 20 and 40 video and audio recording cameras to be used by the cabin crew or downlinked.
In addition to the A380 win, Parker comes to Farnborough this year with a string of high tech successes that include winning the fuel, flight control and hydraulic systems for the Chinese ARJ21 regional jet last September, a contract potentially worth $275 million in original equipment revenues over the next two decades; providing hydraulic systems to JSC Sukhoi Civil Aircraft for the new Russian Regional Jet (RRJ) under a contract signed in March and potentially worth €219 million ($270 million); and winning a contract along with Honeywell to build fuel tank inerting system that will become a forward-fit feature for all Boeing commercial aircraft staring in 2005 if the FAA decides to mandate tank inerting.
Along with acquiring inquiring minds, the company is also extending its global reach, in part to insulate itself from an uncertain U.S. market in the commercial sector. According to mid-year corporate filings, the company expected its relatively flat backlog of roughly $1 billion to continue through the end of the fiscal year, with military orders for programs like the C-17, F/A-18, F/A-22 and JSF increasing and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and aftermarket sales in the commercial business continuing to decline.
Barker says there may be a "slight increase" in the commercial OEM area, but there remains a "big risk" in the U.S. if a carrier like United Air Lines goes under, dumping a glut of aircraft on the market. "We're looking to Europe and Asia," Barker says, "where there seems to be more stability." Parker recently opened an office in Shanghai where 15 engineering experts support the ARJ21 project, an operation Barker says will eventually expand into an overhaul and maintenance facility for Parker equipment on the regional jet as well as for existing aircraft in the Chinese fleet.
With continued market uncertainty in mind, Barker says he had no choice
but to scale back this year's presence at Farnborough, decreasing
staff by 15% to 20% from the 2002 show. "We don't nail down too
many contracts in this business at the show," says Barker. "It's
mostly an opportunity to continue relationships and build new ones."
