Honeycomb seeks OEM jv
Florida-based Honeycomb Company of America, Inc. (HCOA) is exploring the possibility of setting up a joint venture preferably with an original equipment manufacturer and an Indian partner, its President and CEO Steven Walker said.
Speaking at the Farnborough International Airshow 2016, he said: “We want to look into setting up a JV with one of the OEM companies, probably for an offset program, supplying aircraft parts to the Indian Army.”
The JV’s role will be to supply aircraft parts in partnership with a consortium of Indian and U.S. companies, he elaborated.
Given the relaxed rulings on Foreign Direct Investment in the defense sector, Honeycomb expects to work out a JV within the next two (2) to three (3) years.
“There are a lot of military programs in India, so we would like to talk to the right people and understand how they can utilize our technology to India for these various programs,” he said of the massive upgrade hardware planned by the Indian Army.
Honeycomb also has the ability to make commercial aircraft parts and is a qualified supplier to Boeing, Bell Helicopter, Lockheed Martin among others.
“These would be interesting business partners that could work together for expanding into India,” said Walker, noting that Boeing and Bell Helicopters have already built a strong presence in the Indian market.
“We have lots of experience of making aircraft parts. We also do aircraft repairs,” he stressed, pointing to the increasing opportunities in both the Indian military and commercial sectors.
“Investment would depend on the JV configuration and projected demand for the aerostructures,” said Walker.
Honeycomb has been manufacturing quality aerostructures for sixty eight (68) years.
“We are recognized as a leader in the manufacture of bonded metal-to-metal, metal-to-honeycomb, and honeycomb-to-epoxy composite assemblies for military fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft,” he said.
Honeycomb produces replacement parts for several fixed-wing aircraft to include the KC-135 Stratotanker, E-3 Sentry, B-52 Stratofortress, C-130 Hercules, C-5 Galaxy and the F-4 Phantom.
Honeycomb’s expertise is in the production of flaps, leading and trailing edges, rudders, stabilizers, ailerons, control surfaces, metal-to-metal bonded fuselage sections, skins, wing tips, strut doors, main landing gear doors, floor boards, panels among other aerostructure parts and assemblies. fii-news.com
