CMC Electronics believes it is well placed to ride out the recession thanks to its continued investment in new products and the industry's ever-increasing focus on green technologies.
"The company is well positioned despite the softness of the commercial markets," says president Greg Yeldon.
In the business aviation sector, "I think the consensus is we're kind of bouncing around on the bottom," he says.
He adds that aircraft manufacturers are increasingly on the hunt for avionics technologies that could reduce business aviation's environmental footprint.
"It is becoming a more important part of the equation," he says. "When you look at flight management systems and you look at GPS, they all contribute to the benefits of efficiency. The product suite we have is addressing that."
CMC has not cut back on research and development funding. Around one-third of its 1,200-strong workforce are engineers.
"It is important from a short-term perspective to ensure we are well positioned when the recovery on the commercial side begins," says Yeldon.
"The focus now is on product development. We'll continue to invest in the next generation of new products. We are also looking at our productivity, investing new capital in all the things that will position us to take advantage of the recovery. It will happen, but I agree it is not going to be an immediate one."
CMC's principal business aviation products are electronic flight bags, enhanced vision systems and GPS navigation units. The company is highlighting the latest advances in these product lines on its stand.
"We like business aviation because it's a great early adopter and incubator for new products," says Bruce Bailey, vice-president commercial aviation.
"On the EVS front, our initial wins on Bombardier and Dassault have expanded to the Boeing Business Jet and we've got new enhancements of the original baseline product that is to be certificated shortly on the Challenger 605," he says.
"Our latest product is a brand-new EVS, with a higher resolution processing core with a host of signal processing algorithms," says Bailey. "It's got some excellent results. The images from the camera are crystal clear."
Source: Flight Daily News
