GLG News by Defense Industry Consultants (EU)

Nodoby likes to be overly optimistic, especially these days, but strangely, many people looking in on the aerospace industry (especially those on the periphery -- and I don't just mean the BBC) can't see the wood for the trees. And in their little worlds, those trees are all falling down. Strange i...

Though understandable, it's a bit of a stretch to draw a straight line between tightening credit markets and the ability of airlines to finance new aircraft. There's a connection of course, but it's a geared one. Liquidity isn't the real problem here, it's profitability...

Tier I/II suppliers and subcontractors to Boeing on the 787 are reacting to the current strike's implications by variously revising guidance, cutting back on worksheets, temporarily laying-off workers or rescheduling rotas. What they are not doing, is panicking.

The aerospace industry today is depressingly replete with rent-a-quote, doomsday merchants who're only ever capable of worst-case rather than more useful, objective speculation. "AIG was near-collapse, so ILFC's business is in danger and therefore the entire aerospace industry is at risk..."....

Airbus' plans for a narrowbody assembly-line in Tianjin, China, are running more than a year behind schedule and costing EADS far more than anticipated.

An independent report into DOD procurement aspects of the war in Iraq is strongly critical of alleged delays in U.S. sourcing and deployment of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, credited in the past six months with a sharp drop in the U.S. casualty rate.

The current record aerospace industry order cycle will not be sustained by strong growth from Russia and Eastern Europe, no matter what the Russians themselves might say. Potential, yes, practicality, not yet...

Airbus has lost two airline customers in two weeks for its proposed A350XWB. While the orders themselves were small (13 aircraft total), they're another delay-engendered setback for EADS while Boeing is adding B787 orders despite its own compromised delivery schedule.

...but can the company cash them in the cold light of day? Doesn't look like it when even the simplest of claims ("We're the fastest!") turns out not to be what the courts would call, "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth...".

In the three months to January 2008 the U.S. more than doubled its use of unmanned aircraft in Iraq. Intelligence, not just firepower, is making a difference in that theater. The most heavily-used drone, the Raven, weighs in at only 4.2 lbs.