Hawker de Havilland Plans For The Future

The company’s involvement as a partner in the MDX programme will greatly improve its long-term manufacturing capability combined with the massive increases predicted worldwide for civil transport programmes. As the monthly output of offset components also tends to precede anticipated production rate increases by up to 18 months, HOH is already seeing a considerable increase in its monthly production output of components destined for Boeing, McDonnell Douglas and Airbus lndustrie. Exports in this area were already up by 30% for 1989 over the previous year, while this year’s production is destined for another 20% increase through 1990. HDH is also becoming increasingly active on the previously slow Airbus line and will see substantial increases in the supply of components for the European consortium through the next few years as A320/321 production accelerates and the A330/340s come on line. Boeing are also planning for even bigger increases in their monthly production rate while McDonnell Douglas has the MD-90 series on the horizon in addition to the evergreen MD-80 twinjet.

The company is also looking towards a 2 to 3% share of the Boeing 767X programme, something that could easily eclipse the MDX programme in long-term work and revenue generating capability.

The projects which are winding down are all military-orientated. The Army S-70A Black Hawk helo programme ends around April 1991, the F-18 effectively winds down next year, while its GE F404 engine programme has already ended. The S-70s GE T700 engine will also begin to wind down through 1990 while the PC-9 completes in early 1992 unless the RNZAF can be swayed towards buying the type as a Strikemaster replacement, perhaps as a package including ex-RAAF MB-326H Macchis. One area of defence cuts which recently adversely impacted HDH was the cessation of RAAF CH-47C Chinook operations. This effectively constituted 27% of the workload of the Bankstown based engine overhaul facility and, as with the Navy’s decision to scrap much of the Fleet Air Arm in th

e early eighties, represents another good reason why the HOH board is nowadays looking more towards the civil market for its long-term workload. In fact, in the early seventies the workload split was 70% military and 30% civil whereas nowadays this has been neatly reversed.

Other projects though that HDH will be heavily involved in for the military will be the eventual P-3 Orion ESM integration, the 707 refuelling conversion, which it is presently undertaking with IAI, the F-111 upgrade in concert with Rockwell (which may also see the F-111s converted to probe and drogue refuelling) and perhaps a re-engining of the RAAF’s Caribou tactical transport fleet. This latter project would most probably see the GE CT-7 turboprop (the civil version of the T700 from the S-70 Black Hawk/Seahawk helo) powering the Caribou which is presently limited greatly in remote areas by its reliance on vast quantities of avgas. There are still some 232 Caribous worldwide with possibly up to half of these machines eventually being capable of being upgraded to turboprop standards. The more powerful (1735 vs 1450hp) CT-7 would also allow far better performance and some additional cabin features due to its lighter weight such as cockpit aircon, revised nav/comms, weather radar and armour plating for the crew seats. The RAAF is presently looking at the feasibility of the project and may make a decision through 90/91.

Whilst facing a rundown of key military programmes over the coming two years, Hawker de Havilland has successfully moved to ensure that a rapidly increasing output of its civil airliner components will more than take up the slack, while in the longterm the partnership in the MDX helo and possibly the Boeing 767X project will ensure that Australia’s largest aerospace manufacturer remains just that.