The aerospace industry has noticed to see change in trends with the changing market scenarios influenced by global political and trade disruptions. However, it continues to gear up for the year to move it strong. This article provides an outlook of the sector with overview from reports submitted by Deloitte, IATA and excerpts from Graham Mackrell, MD, Harmonic Drive UK.

Electromechanical actuation:

With the manufacturing sector choosing to go completely electric, electromechanical actuation has spread to the aircraft landing gears and flaps. The shift to electromechanical actuation by the aircraft manufacturers has been quite evident. The aerospace industry is gradually looking to incorporate IoT technology, having interrelated computing devices that help provide real-time data with minimal human intervention. Have electric actuations enabling pilots with smart sensors that allows them to access this systemic data. In such scenarios this shift looks sensible, useful and a step towards advancement for the sector.

Electric Planes on the rise:

The second of trends noticed in the aerospace industry is the coming of electric aero planes, which in the future are going to lead the markets. With growing congestion at the hubs, the demand for electric aero planes has increased for shorter travels carrying a head count of 100-1000 people. In such a market scenario, manufacturers are also looking at investing on helicopter market for high-end personal transport.

Also supported by The International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) IATA 2035 report suggests:

• A shift of focus to point-to-point travel may see a rise in short distance travel between secondary & tertiary airports where the electric aircrafts will be pitching more
• Electric Aircrafts being targets to reduce the congestion at the hubs
• In a long run developers may propose electric aircrafts as alternatives to passenger cars which are mainly for short distance commutes.

Supported by the 2019 Global A & D industry outlook paper:

The industry is expected to continue its growth trajectory in 2019, led by growing commercial aircraft production and strong defense spending. In the commercial aerospace sector, aircraft order backlog remains at an all-time high as demand for next-generation, fuel-efficient aircraft continues to surge with the rise in oil prices.

With the introduction of 737-8 and A321neo, the capabilities of narrow-body aircraft have expanded, further impacting wide-body demand which has seen to weaken in 2019 with a high time backlog.

There has been growth in defense spending from nations, such as India, China, and Japan, because of enduring security threats. Also at a global level there is likely to be a rise in investment in military sector with US encouraging NATO countries to increase their military spending to 2% of their GDP.

Some listed industry trends & outlook specific to India

• By 2025, India is expected to become the “third largest” aviation market and supply about 478 million passengers by 2036.
• There could be a demand for more than 2,000 new aircraft in India over the next two decades, which would be dominated by single-aisle aircraft.
• The 2018–19 defense budget for the country stood at US$43.8 billion, a 7.7 percent increase from the 2017–18 budgets.

Deloitte as part of its report suggests, ‘Manufacturing should consider deepening their focus on strengthening the supply chain, effective program management and the use of advanced technologies to enhance productivity and efficiency’