Despite its recent sale and renaming, John Ferrie says it’s business as usual.
It’s business as usual says John Ferrie, head of Smiths Aerospace now renamed as GE Aerospace Systems Division following last month’s US$4.8 billion sale of the British company.
“It’s all pretty much the same,” says Ferrie. “The systems business is still run as a self-contained unit as it was under the previous ownership. There is no real overlap with the engines business. We already ran our engine components business as separate from the systems business. Once you remove the cover it’s the same people, same products and even bigger ambitions for the future.”
Ferrie will be at Paris continuing to “tell the story of the journey we are on” with what he described as the “all consuming” systems integration development.
“We are seeing those programmes that we staked our strategy on, really taking shape.
The A380 – the first of the major system platforms – is about to enter service, the 787 is near to roll out and first flight, JSF is flying and the tankers are about to be delivered.”
But Ferrie will be keen to press forward
to the next level with the latest IMA (integrated modular avionics) systems, better known as common core computing which he believes should be central to Airbus’ plans for the A350 XWB and the narrow body replacements.
“The future is all about a less federated structure and a greater shared computing resource. We have the first truly open architecture common core system developed over a number of years which is demonstrated on the C130 AMP albeit on a smaller scale than 787.
“The Dreamliner is the first really big application of that technology, more advanced for example than the A380 which is a mixture of federated and common core. We would hope to see our technology adopted on the A350.
“The benefit comes from our remote data concentrators or interface devices that are common and can be put anywhere across the aeroplane to interface with the applications and feedback to the common computing resource. We have supplied these successfully on 787 and JSF and are rolling them out on other applications.”
Much of GE R&D investment in the former Smiths business will be on the transition from hydraulic to electrical systems. “We have been a long time focusing on these major systems, a combination of electrical and digital systems and we see actuation moving from hydraulic to electrical. This has environmental benefits and is worthy of focus.”
Source: Flight Daily News
