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| Photo: Rockwell Collins |
[Avionics Today 09-23-2014] Rockwell Collins is looking to leverage growth in the connected aircraft market to bolster opportunities and revenue for the company. Speaking at the Citi 2014 Industrials Conference, Rockwell Collins CEO and President Kelly Ortberg noted a new business segment the company has created to manage the connectivity sector alongside the traditional defense and commercial markets. The new segment, known as information management services, now comprises about 12 percent of the company’s portfolio, and Kelly isn’t shy about making strong predictions for its growth.
“This is all around taking advantage of a trend that is undeniable, which is a connected airplane and being able to move information on and off the airplane,” Ortberg said. “We see some really nice growth coming out of that.”
Rockwell Collins’ recent acquisition of ARINC Incorporated — a transport communications and systems engineering provider — reflects the company’s shift toward In-Flight Connectivity (IFC). The acquisition closed in December for $1.4 billion with the intent that the new company would provide much of the ground architecture that Rockwell Collins needs to provide the secure communications needed for aircraft.
“[Prior to the acquisition,] we’ve been investing … in putting systems on the airplane that allow the network to be connected,” Ortberg said, comparing these systems to those found in a home office. “We’re putting switches, routers, and Ethernet network background on the airplanes. We’re very strong in airborne, [and] ARINC is very strong in the ground network; by combining those two capabilities we can now provide better solutions to our customers.”
While adding technology for secure communications and data connectivity in older model airplanes is still necessary, newer models, such as the 787 and A350, are already manufactured with many of the avionics systems necessary to enable the systems to connect to ground infrastructure. According to Ortberg, this provides more of an opportunity for Rockwell Collins to offer information services such as flight planning, scheduling and management. He backs this up by comparing the data connectivity usage of the Boeing 767 to the Boeing 787, nothing that the later model is using 10 times the data as the earlier one “because the systems on the airplane are now connected and can be offloading information.”
The company is calling for steady growth in the information management sector; eight to 10 percent organically and into the double digits with synergies by fiscal year 2015.
“We look at that market as a protected market because we have a very large ground infrastructure,” Ortberg said, referring to the ground information services segment in which Rockwell Collins provides secure communications from the aircraft to the ground. “There are opportunities for us to grow our new airplanes into the market that are utilizing the network but also driving more data over the network. And these new airplanes as well as newer service offerings that we’re providing are driving that top-line growth for data utilization.”