EADS North America business profile: Fairchild Controls’ President Scott Selle
September 27, 2007
Fairchild Controls is ambitiously pursuing a multi-faceted business development strategy that includes expanding the company’s environmental control system product line, strengthening the electric motor control capability, and increasing its industry presence in the aftermarket services segment.
Scott Selle, who became president of this EADS North America company in mid-2006, is leading the drive for better market balance, adapting from the current business mix which is about 70 percent military and 30 percent commercial.
Scott Selle, who became Fairchild Controls’ president in 2006, said the company has significantly benefited from being part of EADS North America.
Fairchild Controls has four primary product lines: vapor cycle systems; high-speed rotating machinery; air management systems; and electronic system controls.
The largest product line is vapor cycle systems, which provides environmental conditioning aboard aircraft, military ground vehicles, and in other applications. The company’s track record in this sector positions Fairchild Controls to pursue new market opportunities in both airborne and land-based cooling applications, according to Selle.
“This includes both new and retrofit applications, especially with the type of hot, dusty and harsh weather conditions that our deployed troops face today,” he explained. “There also are opportunities for other niche applications – such as small, tightly packaged cooling for active defense systems that could offer mobile or stationary protection against rocket propelled grenades.”
Within the vapor cycle systems product line, Fairchild Controls’ largest single program is its environmental control system on Boeing’s AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopter. This dual redundant system provides distributed cooling and heating to various avionics compartments and the cockpit. “It’s a battle-tested system, proven and trusted in some of the most severe desert operating conditions experienced by any military weapons systems,” Selle said.
Fairchild Controls’ airborne vapor cycle cooling expertise is being applied to the new Airbus A380 jetliner as well, which utilizes the company’s supplemental cooling system (SCS) for all food trolleys stationed at the galley areas throughout this double-deck aircraft. Two independent central refrigeration units – each utilizing a Fairchild Controls proprietary compressor – operate with environmentally-friendly R-134a refrigerant to chill Galden™ coolant fluid to about 15° F. The fluid is then pumped through the aircraft to all galleys and their respective food service trolleys. Power conditioning and system control is provided by an advanced control unit that features efficient, active power factor correction for minimum harmonic distortion, and integrates five separate software modules for control and diagnostics.
The A380’s centralized supplemental cooling system offers significant improvement in terms of weight power consumption, galley volume, and air conditioning load when compared to the traditional method of using individual refrigeration units for food trolleys in each galley location. “Our system has worked extremely well, including during the A380 demonstration flights and hot-weather route proving trials in Singapore and Dubai,” Selle explained.
The highest volume program within Fairchild Controls’ air management system product line is for Raytheon’s Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared (ATFLIR) pod cooling system, which is installed on the F/A-18 Hornet. ATFLIR operates with a Fairchild Controls environmental control valve that utilizes a single-pass air design to reduce the pod’s size and weight. Selle said ATFLIR is now in full rate production after one of the most successful operational evaluations in U.S. Navy history. “The system includes an extraordinarily powerful laser that requires an accurate and reliable environmental control to track targets day or night at ranges exceeding 40 nautical miles,” he added.
According to Selle, airborne pod cooling applications continue to gain momentum, despite industry predictions that foresaw a decline due to the emerging emphasis on aircraft stealth. “The current combat scenarios that America and its allies are engaged in do not put the same priority on radar-evading stealth, and we see a steady forecast for external targeting and reconnaissance pods that require supplemental environmental cooling,” he said.
Fairchild Controls is under contract with General Dynamics Land Systems to furnish the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle’s thermal management system. The first prototype was delivered 14 months after contract award and is currently undergoing performance testing on the vehicle.
Another key business for Fairchild Controls falls within its rotating machinery product line, which includes air turbine drives. These high-speed bleed air-driven turbines provide torque for both supplemental electrical generator and hydraulic pump power during periods of peak aircraft demand, such as the retraction and extension of the landing gear, and the deployment of wing slats and flaps.
A cornerstone of the company’s air turbine drive unit business is the TP-85. Originally developed in the late 1960s for the 747, it has been used on each of the four-engine Boeing jumbo jets built to date. The TP-85 “dash-8” version represents a significant revival for use on the new 747-8 jetliner. The TP-85-8 will supply about 30 percent more supplemental hydraulic pump power than its predecessor, while retaining approximately the same volume and footprint. Earlier 747 jetliners used two TP-85s, while each new 747-8 is to be equipped with four of the air drive units.
“Although we had thought the TP-85 was nearing the end of its production cycle, it is now entering a new life with the 747-8,” Selle said. “We’re developing the latest configuration using CATIA V5 solid model engineering design software. This enables our engineers to work on virtual, real-time partnering teams with Boeing in Seattle and engine pylon manufacturer Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita – just as if they were all in the room together. I’ve discussed the program with Boeing’s senior executives on the 747-8, and we agree this represents game-changing collaboration.”
Another element Fairchild Controls’ business development strategy centers on is enhancing capability for electric motor controls. These high-technology electronic systems condition available electric power for use by the electric motors present in all of Fairchild Controls vapor cycle cooling systems. The controllers allow the motors to operate reliably through start-up electrical current surges, fluctuating system loads, and with variations in electrical frequency that are typical of today’s “more-electric” aircraft.
“In the past we sourced our controllers to partnering suppliers… but we were not able to buy all the functionality we needed, especially for our tightly packaged systems,” Selle stated. “So we’ve steadily improved our electrical engineering and control system expertise, and Fairchild Controls now designs and manufactures several industry-leading electric motor controls. Our Chief Technology Officer / VP of Advanced Products Tom Delash, and our VP of Engineering Paul Dziorny work closely together to ensure our developing technology in controllers meet customer expectations for performance, value and reliability.”
Another of Selle’s priorities is the acceleration of Fairchild Controls’ aftermarket maintenance, repair and overhaul services – a business which has grown about 30 percent during the past 18 months. “We’re aggressively winning back aftermarket business, and our goal is to expand beyond our own products to other manufacturers’ systems where we can combine our product line technology with our lean repair processes to overdrive customer value,” he said.
In reviewing the company’s overall competitive position, Selle said Fairchild Controls has significantly benefited from being an EADS business, and sees even more opportunity to leverage EADS synergies.
“Fairchild Controls has all of the advantages afforded a smaller, 180-person company. We will maximize these advantages by becoming an even leaner, more responsive, and customer focused organization, while still offering capabilities and resources of a world-leading aerospace and defense company, EADS,” he explained. “And we need to do a better job at winning new orders inter-divisionally. We should strive for a ‘first-call-last-bid’ mindset to compete for content on EADS platforms in those areas where we have recognized core competencies.”
Selle recognizes this is a two-way street, adding that Fairchild Controls also needs to look to other EADS businesses to meet supply needs.
Fairchild Controls’ future technology development will be aided by such activities as teaming with the electrical engineering groups at EADS Defense Electronics and Airbus, and overseeing EADS-funded advanced aerospace research grants currently in place at the University of Alabama, Huntsville and Georgia Institute of Technology.
