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 AIA UPDATE: June/July 2008, Volume 12, No. 9
Aerospace Industry Raising National Awareness of Workforce Concerns The central messages of "working together" and "raising awareness now" were identified by aerospace industry leaders at a recent forum on workforce challenges co-sponsored by AIA and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. BAE Systems CEO Walt Havenstein told the standing-room-only crowd that industry leaders "are looking for ways to work with everyone who has a stake in our nation's economic competitiveness and security to find and implement effective solutions." "A broad cross section of our industry from policy and academia to human resources and public relations has a role in identifying solutions to the workforce challenge," AIA President and CEO Marion Blakey told the conference. "Recruiting and retaining the talent that we need in the industry to keep us strong and competitive is a multifaceted challenge," she added. Raising awareness about increasing the nation's science and technical workforce pool and attracting professionals to the aerospace industry was foremost in several of the conference presentations. Currently, about 70,000 engineers graduate nationally each year, but only 44,000 of that number are eligible to work in the aerospace industry, AIA reports. Some graduates bypass the aerospace industry for cutting-edge jobs in other fields, such as computer sciences. "We don't do a good job of convincing young people to work in aerospace," said Rick Stephens, senior vice president of human resources at Boeing. "About 19 or 20 percent of Boeing's employees are eligible to retire today, and we expect that to nearly double in the next five years," according to Stephens. "That's more than 60,000 employees." Some reported at the conference that the current workforce situation is not yet at a crisis level. For instance, Carole Rickard Hedden, who conducts Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine's annual workforce survey, gave the conference an exclusive preview of the 2008 survey's early results. She said that while there has been an increase in the number of workers qualifying for retirement, there hasn't been an increase in the percent of retirements this year. Hedden was quick to point out, however, that this doesn't mean that the industry is in the clear, citing a decrease in women in technical positions and multiple demands for human resources departments to improve their on-line hiring tools. A disturbing finding is that while the current workforce shows slight increases, the future workforce faces an impending "silver tsunami" of retirees, Hedden pointed out. Despite millions of dollars and hours invested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics education (STEM) by companies, there has been no measurable gain in the number of students entering those fields. According to Hedden, this is due in part to the industry's need to come together to identify a goal for STEM enrollment and pursue it aggressively. "We need to get rid of our logos," said Boeing's Stephens about the need for the industry to work together to get more students interested in STEM, adding that there are about 3.5 million young people today that need to be influenced. "We need to approach this issue in a communicative, collaborative and integrative way. We need to act and think differently, and we need to stop talking to ourselves," he cautioned. "All stakeholders should be at the table, not just government, industry and educators, but also media, health care providers and parents." Conference chair George Muellner, president of AIAA, agreed, adding that "we need to better communicate with other industries. The nation is facing a human capital issue, and we need to do a better job of communicating this." A report on the forum will be released by AIAA this summer and will include a summary of the conference's findings and recommended actions. A follow-on forum is also being considered. AIA Source: daphne.dador@aia-aerospace.org
AEROSPACE FOCUS: Team America Rocketry Challenge 2008 Champions  U.S. Aerospace Employment Continues to Rise Aerospace employment is continuing a steady climb since hitting a low in 2003. The number of industry workers grew in March to 651,700, a slight increase over the 2007 year-end average of 645,600, which itself was a 2.2 percent increase over 2006 and the fourth straight year the industry has seen gains in employment. Employment is tied closely to record industry sales, which reached $198.8 billion in 2007 and are expected to eclipse $210 billion in 2008. "This is good news for aerospace manufacturers and for workers looking for good jobs because the opportunities will continue," said AIA President and CEO Marion Blakey. "While overall manufacturing employment has declined, our civil, defense and space sectors are strong with a record backlog of orders fueled by major export growth." The industry is facing a potential workforce crisis as scores of employees reach retirement age. According to AIA statistics, almost 60 percent of the U.S. aerospace workforce was age 45 or older in 2007. "As the workers that won the Space Race and the Cold War get ready to retire, there is a whole world of opportunity in this industry," said Blakey. "We can't encourage the next generation of workers enough to study math and science so as to take advantage of the enormous number of exciting career opportunities." Demand for commercial transports, business jets and military aircraft has been so strong in recent years that production has not been able to keep up with orders, resulting in an unprecedented backlog that should keep the aerospace industry healthy into the near future. Moving forward, however, growing demand may not translate into higher aerospace employment to the same degree that it has in the past. Historically, high capital costs have limited job migration within the aerospace industry, but the employment market has become more mobile in recent years. The shift is exemplified by the rise in U.S. imports of aerospace products. In recent years, the major U.S. civil aircraft firms have moved away from parts manufacturing to more emphasis on final assembly. This approach allows them to shop for suppliers the world over, thereby reducing costs and increasing productivity. The current robust market for civil aircraft has compelled a growing number of international firms to compete for potential profits, thereby offering U.S. firms incentives to source more of their inventory offshore. AIA Source: william.chadwick@aia-aerospace.org VIEWPOINT: Military Investment Must Address Present, Future By Marion C. Blakey, AIA President and Chief Executive Officer Everyone it seems is paying closer attention these days to their household budgets as gas prices and other financial pressures take a much larger chunk than they did in the past. Our nation's future defense budgets are facing a similar situation as rising operations, maintenance and personnel expenditures pose a bona fide and very chilling threat that could lead to diminished military readiness. AIA has taken a close look at this important issue, releasing a comprehensive report in April that spells out specific challenges to future Defense Department budgets and offers some meaningful recommendations. The report, "U.S. Defense Modernization: Readiness Now and for the Future," is aimed at elevating the issue on the national stage and letting the presidential campaigns know of a fiscal challenge that awaits the winner. And that challenge is significant. There are dynamics within the defense budget that threaten to shortchange investment in future needs even if overall DoD spending increases. At current rates the operations and maintenance portion of the budget will have more than doubled between 1988 and 2013. That's a rate of increase greater than the growth of the overall DoD budget. Compare that with an increase of more than 50 percent in the modernization portions of the budget over the same timeframe. It doesn't take a mathematician to see that operations and maintenance are slowly taking over a larger and larger portion of the budget. And the danger is very real that the modernization programs that ensure our future military readiness will suffer. There are steps that the next administration can take, however, to ensure that our military remains the best equipped and prepared in the world. The report offers a five-part planning approach to meet our operations and maintenance needs while ensuring that America has the equipment needed for tomorrow's conflicts. The recommendations are:
We will urge the next administration to use this information as a guide for future military spending. The stakes are too high to permit defense modernization challenges to fall by the wayside. Our fighting men and women need superior arms and equipment to succeed in today's battles — but not at the expense of our ability to guarantee national security for tomorrow. "U.S. Defense Modernization: Readiness Now and for the Future" is available on AIA's Web site at www.aia-aerospace.org. WASHINGTON WATCH: British Defence Equipment Minister Taylor Urges Trade Treaty Passage The U.S.-UK Defense Trade Cooperation Treaty is a significant step in achieving even closer cooperation between the United States and the United Kingdom, declared British Minister for Defence Equipment and Support Baroness Ann Taylor of Bolton in a recent Washington appearance. Speaking at an AIA-hosted luncheon with congressional staff and industry representatives in May, Taylor said that Senate approval of the treaty would help enhance the effectiveness of the U.S.-UK military and security relationship. "Our defense and security companies must be able to collaborate in the development of technologies that will effectively counter both conventional and unconventional threats. We need to get capability from the drawing board into the field faster than ever before, and it is up to us to enable that transition," Taylor stressed. "Our warfighters should expect and get the best we can make available — nothing less." In a related action, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee conducted a hearing on the U.S.-UK and U.S.-Australia treaties in late May. AIA Source: joseph.lai@aia-aerospace.org WASHINGTON WATCH: FAA Reorganizes to Align Its NextGen Modernization Efforts FAA is reorganizing to more closely integrate planning and implementation of its airways modernization efforts known as NextGen. Vicki Cox, who previously served as a vice president in the FAA's Air Traffic Organization, has been named senior vice president of NextGen and operations planning. She will lead efforts to transform the nation's aviation system by increasing capacity, safety and security while decreasing adverse environmental impacts. Cox reports directly to the Chief Operating Officer of Air Traffic Operations Hank Krakowski. Her responsibilities will include the Joint Planning and Development Office, which will focus on mid-term and long-term planning. FAA will assume more near-term planning and implementation. Former AIA Vice President of Civil Aviation Mike Romanowski now heads the expanded Operational Evolutionary Partnership, which is handling much of NextGen's implementation. AIA supports the reorganization because it places future planning within the implementing agency and more closely aligns air traffic modernization planning, new implementation measures and current operations. Government-industry cooperation on issue-specific working groups within the JPDO will continue. AIA Source: susan.mertes@aia-aerospace.org WASHINGTON WATCH: Blakey: Right Export Controls Needed for Right Technologies Industry should be given the export control system needed to support our warfighters, AIA President and CEO Marion Blakey told an export control modernization conference recently. Speaking at a May symposium sponsored by the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies, Blakey said the administration should move from a "one-size-fits-all" export controls approach to one focused on the right controls for the right technologies. "Given our industry's strong commitment to complying with export control regulations, our supplier base (has) increasingly found itself erring on the side of caution," Blakey pointed out "This has impacted production and delivery schedules and has been particularly bad for small- and medium-sized companies." The CSIS event also featured remarks by Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, Capitol Hill staff and industry representatives. The conference coincided with House passage of the Security Assistance and Arms Export Control Reform Act of 2008 that will enhance U.S. defense cooperation with allies. The bill includes AIA-supported provisions to improve export licensing processes at the State Department and the same preferential treatment for expedited congressional notification requirements for arms sales to South Korea as currently applies to NATO, Australia, Japan and New Zealand. AIA Source: joseph.lai@aia-aerospace.org What's Next for 2008 Team America Rocketry Challenge Champions from Enloe High School, Raleigh, N.C.? The World Championship Fly-off! 
Next stop for the 2008 Team America Rocketry Challenge champions from Enloe High School of Raleigh, N.C., will be the Farnborough International Airshow and a world championship fly-off against Horsforth Secondary School of Yorkshire.
The Enloe team won the Sixth Annual TARC championship May 17, beating out 99 U.S. rivals for the title. The Horsforth squad won this year's United Kingdom Aerospace Youth Rocketry Challenge. The Enloe-Horsforth meeting July 18 will be the first international match in the history of TARC. It will be the third consecutive year, however, that Raytheon Company, a major supporter of the competition, is funding the U.S. team's trip to an international air show as part of the first-prize package. Sponsored by AIA and the National Association of Rocketry, the contest encourages students to consider careers in aerospace. In addition to the trip to London, winners share a prize pool of more than $60,000 with other top finishers. Lockheed Martin Corporation is providing $5,000 scholarships to each of the top three teams, and the leading 18 teams are invited by NASA to participate in its Student Launch Initiative, an advanced rocketry program. DoD is awarding six one-week scholarships to select TARC teachers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics training. Lockheed Martin and Curtiss-Wright provided additional financial support to the Enloe High School team to help them attend the finals. In addition to Enloe, top five finishers were Mulberry Grove, Ill., High School, Kickapoo High School of Springfield, Mo., Oaks Christian School of Westlake Village, Calif. and Cheyenne Mountain Charter Academy of Colorado Springs, Colo. Complete results are available at www.rocketcontest.org. Special thanks to our 2008 Team America Rocketry Challenge sponsors:
AIA Source: audrey.koehler@aia-aerospace.org Team America Yields More Than Rockets as Participants Show Career Interest in Aerospace The Team America Rocketry Challenge is producing results for the aerospace and defense industry as participants start to graduate from college and seek a career in the industry. One example is David Adelman who, as one of the TARC pioneers, participated in the inaugural year of the contest in 2003. With the help of member company Aerojet, the Oakton, Va., High School student's team made it to the finals of the contest. His exposure to Aerojet as a senior led to an internship and then a fulltime job after college graduation in June 2007, a story AIA expects to be repeated manyfold in the coming years. Adelman's experience with TARC and the industry is reflected in results from a poll of students who participated in this year's contest. More than 60 percent of the students had increased their interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) due to their participation in TARC. More than 50 percent said they planned on majoring in a STEM field in college and 62 percent reported that they were interested in working in the aerospace industry upon graduation. Another piece of good news is that a majority of students who participated in TARC 2008 plan to return for another shot at the championship. AIA Source: audrey.koehler@aia-aerospace.org New Members: Two Firms Added to Association Roster A pair of new member companies raises the association's roster to 100 regular members, according to the most recent count, while associate membership stands at 187. Belcan Advanced Engineering & Technology Belcan Advanced Engineering & Technology, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, designs vibration analysis, procurement and computer modeling for the aerospace industry. Founded in 1958, the company specializes in design engineering, engineering analysis, computer modeling, software and controls, advanced manufacturing techniques and staffing solutions to the aircraft, military vehicle, marine and helicopter sectors. For more information visit belcan.com/aerospaceindustry.php. Siemens PLM Software Siemens PLM Software provides product lifecycle management packages, a category of design and collaboration software. The Plano, Texas, company, one of the biggest suppliers in the product lifecycle management market, has upgraded its membership from the associate member category. The company was spun off from EDS in 1998 and publicly held for three years. For more information visit plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/. AIA Source: trish.ward@aia-aerospace.org |
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