Podcast: What's The Buzz At Bombardier, Textron Aviation and Daher?

Aviation Week editors have hit the road. Listen in as Jeremy Kariuki, Molly McMillin and Bill Carey discuss their visits to Bombardier, Textron Aviation and Daher, as the BCA team returns from different corners of North America, where they covered business aviation events and announcements.

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Transcript

Jeremy Kariuki:

Hello, and welcome to the BCA Podcast by Aviation Week Network. This week I'm joined by my fellow colleagues, Molly McMillin and Bill Carey from the BCA team. Molly and Bill, thank you so much for joining me today.

Molly McMillin:

Thanks for having us.

Bill Carey:

Glad to be here.

Jeremy Kariuki:

So the BCA team has been super busy, and myself included, these past couple of weeks because we've been on the road and we need to know what happened, where we were going, what we saw. So Molly, could you tell us about your recent trip?

Molly McMillin:

Thanks, Jeremy. On May 1st, Textron Aviation had a pre-EBACE briefing with the media. My trip entailed, basically, going across Wichita to the site, since I live here, but other members of the media flew in. They had some hands-on briefings and also some official briefings. So it was a long day, but a full day. One of the things they showed us was their expanded global parts distribution facility, which added 180,000 square feet. So they basically consolidated five warehouses into one on both sides of town. It was like a $20 million investment, but some of the highlights. They have 150,000 unique part numbers. One of the aisles, it was just full of tires, just airplane tires. It's an interesting place. From there, they support in-production and out-of-production aircraft such as a Cessna models, Hawker and Beechcraft models. And they mentioned that consolidating it, saves them 40,000 miles of driving a year because they would have to go from the former Beechcraft facilities on the east part of town to West Wichita, which is next to the Wichita Dwight Eisenhower National Airport.

And they're one of the latest pickup times for FedEx, so they can get things out really late. It's a big facility. It was interesting to see. They also had us do a spec session like you would with a customer that would come in. You can pick your interior, sew your fabrics and leathers and can do just about anything there. So it was interesting seeing them go through the process. And they had us be "customers" and design an interior together. The other thing they did was give an update on the Beechcraft Denali program, their single engine turboprop where they've begun certification flight testing, that phase of the program. Earlier in 2024, they received FAA type inspection authorization, so now they can start the certification flight testing. They have three test aircraft that completed nearly 2000 flight hours so far on over 830 flights, and they say they're on track for FAA certification in 2025. So that was some of the highlights of the day.

Jeremy Kariuki:

That's awesome. I wish I was able to design an interior aircraft on my trip, but it sounds like you had a lot of fun.

Molly McMillin:

It was interesting. It was fun.

Jeremy Kariuki:

My trip was also very fun, given that it was a lot of family involved. As Bombardier opened up their new facility at Toronto Pearson International Airport, they inaugurated the new facility. They had moved from their old facility at Downsview Airport, not too far away from there, but the new facility is much larger. It's 770,000 square feet and represents a $500 million investment. It shares the runway with the Toronto Pearson Airport of course, and they're on a long-term lease from the airport. So the new facility is a little different from the Downsview location, as in the aircraft move around in a concentric fashion, around the same building through all phases of assembly. From there, the aircraft are then flown to their other completions facility in Montreal. A cool part of that was when the aircraft are lined up, they have no paint on them, and you can literally see through the cabin windows. There's just nothing in there except for the fuel systems, the flight systems and everything up in the flight deck or in the cockpit.

So that facility is used to produce their global series aircraft and their flights are conducted using SAF through book and claim. As I was told from their leadership team, all testing, demo and transfer flights that Bombardier conducts, are using SAF in order to reduce rather their carbon footprint. But outside of that, Bombardier was also busy having an investor's day where they gave a lot of results for their investors and trying to really increase confidence in their product and in their services. Bombardier plans deliver up to 155 business jets this year and 150 jets in 2025. According to Bombardier, they achieved a nearly 77% increase in aftermarket revenue since 2020, and they claim to be the only OEM to meet delivery guidance for the past two consecutive years. That's according to Eric Martel, their president and CEO.

But the facility was not the only new thing Bombardier had. They also have a new logo now. It's been quite a while since they've changed up their branding, but they seem very excited about it. Their new logo called the Mach, it resembles an aircraft breaking the sound barrier with the wind going over the wings and the fuselage, and they even unveiled the livery for aircraft that the new logo will be all over. Now, they didn't have an actual aircraft there with the new livery on it, and even their buildings, which I thought was funny, have the old Bombardier logo because they were built before the new logo was decided on. Of course, that is going to change in the next couple of months, in the near future. It was a really good time. Got to see a lot of really cool things. But we also have Bill. Bill, where did you go and what did you see?

Bill Carey:

Oh, indeed, Jeremy, I did go somewhere. I think it was a bit different from your experience and that of Molly's touring through large established legacy aircraft manufacturers. I had the honor and pleasure of visiting the Daher Kodiak final assembly facility in Sandpoint, Idaho. Sandpoint is a ski resort town on the shores of Lake Pend Oreille in Northern Idaho. Just a beautiful part of the world. At that facility which Daher acquired, it was the former Quest Aircraft facility that Daher acquired in 2019, they built the Kodiak 100 and the newer 900 single engine unpressurized, multi-role turboprops that are really suited for back country type operations, which I found interesting in that Daher, which is based in Tarbes, France, builds the TBM 910 and 960, their most recent high-end executive turboprops, very stylish aircraft. So at Sandpoint, Sandpoint started building the Kodiak 100 in around 2010 until it was acquired by a Japanese company in 2015.

And then Daher came in, as I said, in 2019 and acquired that facility and the manufacturing operations for the Kodiak 100, and it fit that into its overall industrial strategy. One thing it wanted at the time was a presence in the United States. It also has facilities elsewhere in the United States where it does other things, including aerostructures. But here it continues to build the Kodiak 100, and in 2022, the same year that it unveiled the TBM 960, it also unveiled the Kodiak 900, which is an extended version of the Legacy Kodiak 100 with a more powerful Pratt and Whitney Canada PT6 engine. And they're now developing a sensor package for that. Both aircraft are considered ideal, as I said, for backcountry operations, different roles in wildfire and forest and wetland surveillance and used by agencies including the US Fish and Wildlife service, which has eight Kodiaks and various state forestry service as well.

So it was a real pleasure to be able to see that facility. Daher has to date, I think, delivered something on the order of 340 Kodiaks and close to 1200 of the TBMs. It plans to ramp up production next year of both the TBM and Kodiak sides of the business, and I think it hopes to turn out 25 Kodiaks in this current year. So I was glad to have the opportunity to get to this beautiful corner of the United States and to see what's going on there.

Molly McMillin:

Bill, I was out at Sun 'n Fun in April, and Daher had a press conference there, and they said that now they have separate lines for each of the Kodiak products. Were you able to see that in action?

Bill Carey:

They do. There's, as I recall, six separate stations in the final assembly facility. The first three stations, the fuselages begin as the same and then after station three, the 900 cuts off. It's an extended version. It's 39 inches longer than the Kodiak 100, and they put an additional several inches in the front and the back of the airplane for that extension. It's higher gross weight and more powerful engine.

Molly McMillin:

No, that's right. I think they're raising, maybe you mentioned that, that they're raising production this year.

Bill Carey:

Yeah. I think they were on their eighth delivery of a Kodiak 900, which, as I mentioned, that was unveiled at EAA Air Venture Oshkosh in July of 2022, a few months after Sun 'n Fun where the TDM 960 was unveiled.

Jeremy Kariuki:

And yeah, and on the new aircraft front, Bombardier gave us a little bit of information regarding the Global 8000, which is supposed to be, in their words, the fastest and longest range jet in its class with the 8,000 nautical mile range, I believe, and flying at about 0.945 Mach as a top speed. It's expected to enter service by the latter half of 2025, but we'll see how it follows with certifications and whatnot. But a lot of people are excited for more updates on that, so we'll keep a very close ear on that front.

Molly McMillin:

Jeremy, did you see some of the Global 8000s on production line when you were there?

Jeremy Kariuki:

Unfortunately not. It seemed to be most of their other aircraft, like the 6500 and the 7000, I think they really want to keep the 8000 under wraps until they're ready to show it and ready to sell it, more importantly. But no, we were not able to get any views of the 8000 while we were in Toronto, but I'm sure once they have it on the line, we'll be back and we'll be seeing it real up close.

I think that's all the time we have for today. Molly, Bill, thank you so much for joining me again on the podcast. It's always a pleasure.

Thanks for listening to the BCA Podcast by Aviation Week Network. This week's episode was produced by Jeremy Kariuki and Cory Hitt. If you enjoyed the show, don't forget to like or follow us on your podcast app of choice. If you'd like to support us, please leave a rating wherever you listen. Thanks again, and we'll see you next time.