Kaman Aerospace Expands into Business Aviation Market

ORLANDO, Fla. – OCTOBER 29, 2012 – Kaman Aerospace Group is highlighting the benefits that its expanding design, metal and composite manufacturing, testing and tooling capabilities offer to business aircraft OEMs, suppliers and operators during its first appearance at the NBAA annual meeting and convention.
 
“We look forward to our first NBAA show and to sharing with other attendees our extensive and growing capabilities for helping them increase the reliability and lower the maintenance requirements and operating costs of business aircraft,” states Gary Tenison, Kaman's Group Vice President for Aerospace Business Development and Marketing. "Kaman’s industry leading bearing technologies, and ability to concurrently engineer structures, molds and assembly fixtures into lighter, more easily manufactured and more cost-effective solutions, combined with our global footprint and Lean initiatives, leave Kaman well positioned to become a preferred partner within the business jet marketplace."

To emphasize the significant capabilities Kaman Aerospace offers business aviation, Tenison and his team will be joined at NBAA 2012 by Neal Keating, Chairman, President and CEO of Kaman Corporation.  Kaman’s display at Exhibit 1140 includes a carbon monolithic lightweight door structure, a winglet and an aileron for new business jets and the company’s flight control bearing products.  NBAA 2012 is being held Oct. 30 – Nov. 1 in Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center. 

A growing global aerospace company, with its Seattle Engineering Center of Excellence and new facilities in Mexico, Vermont and India joining operations in Germany, the U.K. and throughout the U.S., Kaman Aerospace is a full-service solution provider of aerospace products that range from complete aircraft (such as the K-MAX® utility helicopter), cockpits and other integrated structures and carbon monolithic lightweight door systems to flight control surfaces, high-lift transmission systems, specialty bearings, and engineering and certification support services. 
 
In 2010, Kaman acquired Global Aerosystems, LLC of Everett, Wash., a provider of aerostructures engineering design analysis and FAA certification services to the international aerospace industry that has become the Seattle Engineering Center of Excellence.  That year it also opened its Chihuahua, Mexico facility, which is focused on the low-cost manufacture of metallic detail parts and assemblies. In 2011, Kaman acquired Vermont Composites, Inc., a Bennington, Vt.-based leader in the design and manufacture of composite aerostructures and advanced composite medical equipment.  On Oct. 9 this year, Kaman announced it had signed a definitive agreement with Kineco Private Ltd., one of India’s leading composites manufacturers, to establish the Kineco Kaman Composites–India Pvt. Ltd. joint venture in Goa, India.  It will manufacture advanced composite structures for aerospace, medical and other industries. 

Over the last few years, Kaman Aerospace has accelerated the implementation of Lean continuous improvement processes and tools across its operations. The new Chihuahua facility was set up according to Lean principles, as were lines in Jacksonville, Florida, producing cabins for new-build Bell/U.S. Marine Corps AH-1Z and Sikorsky BLACK HAWK helicopters. Lean initiatives also have improved the efficiency of Kaman lines producing flaps and decelerons for Boeing A-10 jets, rotor blade products for Kaman, Bell, Boeing/MDHI and Sikorsky helicopters, operator stations for the Boeing P-8 and specialty bearings. Such initiatives allowed Kaman to increase Bell rotor blade deliveries by 50 percent with no additional staffing or overtime.