SMITHS INDUSTRIES estimates that it has secured around $350 million of business on the next generation of Boeing 737, after being selected to supply the aircraft's flight-management computer (FMC) system.
Smiths supplies a range of avionics equipment for the existing 737 programme, including the FMC, but faced a fierce battle with Honeywell to retain the work for the new-generation 737-700/800 family. The loss of the contracts would have deprived the UK group of business worth almost $500,000 per aircraft, including spares.
Instrumentation business had already been lost, following Honeywell's successful bid to provide a glass cockpit for the new aircraft. Pressure on prices has also been severe, with Boeing demanding cost reductions of up to 25% from its suppliers.
Smiths has retained work for only two flightdeck instruments, the rate-of-climb and standby altitude/airspeed indicators, as well as being selected for the autothrottle computer, with "smart" servo-motor technology borrowed from its work on the Boeing 777 programme.
With the long-awaited FMC decision, Smiths now estimates that it has won back more than two-thirds of the value of business which it had on the existing 737 programme. Smiths predicts that the work could be worth in the region of $350 million over the programme's life, given an output of 1,300 aircraft. That would value the equipment and spares business at around $270,000 per aircraft.
Source: Flight International
