Airframers at the crossroads

Aerospace manufacturers must face up to recession challenges while investing in new technologies.

There can be little doubt that the world recession hit aerospace manufacturers hard, with some sectors suffering more than others. In the recent past, it seemed executive jet companies may have fared better than the “big boys” of the industry. Today it looks as if shareholder pressure has forced an even bigger reduction in corporate flying than anyone imagined.

At the bottom end of the bizjet sector, the fall in confidence has hit hard. Germany's Grob was one of the first to go under in 2008, and manufacturing rates of all types of bizjets have had to adapt as new orders reduced to a trickle in most cases. Some of those with well-established product lines, such as the Dassault Falcon family, still have a lengthy backlog due to heavy investment in new models such as the flyby-wire 7X. These have successfully kept production lines rolling through the downturn.