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Dassault’s Growth Reflects Aviation Industry Potential

6 min read

Like some fine French wines, Dassault Falcon Jet Corp. – or at least its presence in Arkansas – continues to get better with age.

The maker of business jets has been in Little Rock for 32 years, and by the end of next year its facilities will be more than 13 times larger than when it all began in 1975.

Dassault’s expansion reflects the potential of the aerospace industry to create jobs in Arkansas. Aviation is Arkansas’ single biggest manufacturing export commodity.

And there’s little doubt that Gov. Mike Beebe and Maria Haley, executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, see the potential of the aerospace industry in the state. It’s something the Little Rock Airport Commission has been touting for years.

Bob East, chairman and CEO of East-Harding Inc. and a member of the airport commission, said the aerospace industry is huge.

"There’s a tremendous demand for private and corporate jets," he said, one that’s being spurred by a healthy economy, time-saving convenience and the unreliability of the commercial airlines.

"Aerospace has a base here and it is expanding," East said. "We must keep up with it. It’s a huge opportunity for the state."

A symbol of that opportunity is Dassault Falcon Jet, which employs some 2,000 workers at its completion and service centers at Adams Field with an annual average salary of $40,000. Dassault Falcon is part of Dassault Aviation, based in Paris.

Recent expansion announcements include a $20 million project that will add 116,000 SF of production, design and warehouse space to the completion center, and earlier this month, the company said it would double the space for its service center in a $10 million project.

The completion center project is expected to add 200 jobs over the next two years, the company said, while the service center project will add 100 jobs over the next three years.

Payroll at the centers is expected to be about $200 million once the new employees are hired.

When the projects are completed, Dassault’s physical plant will be more than 820,000 SF, said Andrew Ponzoni, manager of public relations and communications.

Building permits for two of the Dassault projects have already been let by Kinco Inc. of Little Rock. One was for $2.2 million to construct a hangar, and the other was for $13.3 million to construct an "aircraft facility."

With a strong global economy, the company is currently at a high mark. And changes in the market in the past few years, Ponzoni said, bode well for the company. A few years back, the company sold about 70 percent of its planes in the United States, but now about 60 percent of its sales are international.

"It’s not because of a slowdown in U.S. sales," Ponzoni said, "but because of the increase in international sales." Sales have picked up in Brazil, Russia, India, China, Eastern Europe, Western Europe and the Middle East, he said.

The company has orders for 165 airplanes through 2013, Ponzoni said, and the backlog is growing.

All of Dassault Falcon’s business jets are manufactured in Bordeaux, France, and flown in what the company calls "green" condition to the Little Rock completion center, where optional avionics and a custom interior are installed and the exterior is painted according to the buyer’s specifications. Then each is given a flight test before the new owner picks it up in Little Rock.

Dassault Falcon makes business jets in the larger, long-range sector of the market that sell for $25 million to $45 million. It has about 40 percent market share in that sector against primary competitors Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., a subsidiary of General Dynamics Co., and Bombardier Inc. of Montreal.

Falcon’s LR History

Dassault bought Little Rock Airmotive in 1975. At the time it was a 61,500-SF hangar and office facility that had been used as a completion center by FedEx founder Fred Smith for the fleet of Falcon 20 transports he used to launch the overnight delivery service in the early 1970s.

With a group of workers familiar with the Falcon product already in place, Dassault bought the operation to complete Falcons for the Western Hemisphere and the Pacific Rim.

But, Ponzoni said, the base of highly skilled artisans and workers in cabinetry, carpentry, leather goods, upholstery and a range of technical activities led to making Little Rock the main completion center for all Falcon aircraft and the largest Dassault facility worldwide.

"It’s been a mutually beneficial relationship for us and for the city of Little Rock," he said.

In 2006, Dassault made 50 customer deliveries from Little Rock. At the announcement of the completion center expansion, Christian Sasso, senior vice president and general manager of the center, said the company is on track to deliver about 70 aircraft this year and expects to deliver about 90 next year as customers start taking delivery of the new Falcon 7X, a tri-jet with a range of 5,950 nautical miles. The launch of the 7X was the most successful of a business jet ever in terms of sales dollar value.

The Little Rock operation calls for a wide variety of skills. In addition to craftsmen working on the interiors, the company employs electrical engineers and other technical workers who design the avionics, as well as the pilots, mechanics and shop floor workers.

Dassault Aviation, the parent company, also makes the Mirage and Rafale fighter jets and employs a total work force of more than 12,000.

Since the rollout of the first Falcon 20 in 1963, more than 1,650 Falcon jets have been delivered to more than 65 countries worldwide.

The family of Falcon jets currently in production includes the tri-jets – the Falcon 50EX, 900DX, 900EX EASy and the new 7X – as well as the twin-engine Falcon 2000 and 2000EX EASy.

An Emphasis on Training

When Bob East talks about keeping up with the aerospace industry in Arkansas, he’s talking about training aerospace workers and letting students know the career paths they need to take in high school and college to take advantage of the high-paying jobs that will be available.

East said there will be a demand for some 450 jobs in the industry over the next two years. Those jobs will range from electrical, mechanical and design engineers to cabinet makers, pilots and aircraft mechanics.

"We’ve got to put some time and effort into work force training for aerospace," East said.

"A focus on aerospace will attract new industry."

Beebe has made it clear that the need to improve work force education is one of his top priorities. Community colleges must place more emphasis on developing curricula specifically to fit a company’s needs, he has said.

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Pulaski Technical College in North Little Rock already offer short-term aviation classes that will help, but more will be needed to meet the demands of the industry. East said Pulaski Tech has 120 students enrolled in two aircraft mechanic classes and another 150 waiting to get in.

Just last week, the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville began an aviation maintenance class with 15 students. The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a certificate recognizing the program, which will be held mainly at a hangar at the Batesville Regional Airport.

Beebe has said the state Department of Education is working aerospace industry education into the high school curriculum. Central Flying Service at Adams Field offers private pilot lessons, and Henderson State University at Arkadelphia offers the state’s only four-year Bachelor of Science degree in aviation.

In addition to Dassault and Hawker Beechcraft Corp. at Adams Field, which also has expanded and employs some 900 workers, the industry has many suppliers and subcontractors in the area and more that could be developed, East said. He listed such companies as Custom Aircraft Cabinets Inc., ACI Plastics Inc., both in North Little Rock, and Little Rock Powder Coating & Finishing that already do a lot of work with the aircraft companies.

The governor has said the state should build on the strength of its business and industrial clusters around the state – and that includes aerospace in the Little Rock area.

Haley has said aerospace growth could be major if the AEDC does its job well and markets it even more by attending aviation shows and advertising in aviation magazines. And she said the state would also focus on recruiting industries that support the aerospace industry.

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