MDS Aero Support Corp. designs and supplies test facilities and systems for gas turbine engines used by aviation, industrial and marine customers.
Officials at the 25-year-old company say they hold a dominant market position in the engine manufacturing industry, counting Pratt & Whitney, Rolls Royce and Siemens among its major customers.
However, the deal with Air France Industries is a “prestigious” contract that company officials hope will help MDS Aero win more business in the maintenance sector.
“It really put us on the map in the repair and overhaul field,” said company president and CEO Kevin Fitzgerald.
“(The contract) completes our market offering in the aviation space,” he added in an interview Tuesday. It followed a press conference featuring federal politicians, there to tout the industrial benefits of Canada’s participation in the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter program.
MDS Aero is currently doing design and engineering work for the Air France facility, which will cover an area of roughly 1,350 square metres near Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. Construction on the $50-million project is expected to start this spring.
MDS Aero’s test facilities are designed to simulate conditions an aircraft engine would experience during normal operation. Large volumes of data are captured during tests to verify thrust and fuel efficiency requirements, among other measurements, and ensure there are no malfunctions.
Mr. Fitzgerald said MDS Aero’s capabilities in the field of aerodynamics acoustics helped it oust the incumbent supplier, which had done business with Air France for 30 years.
“Air France took (aerodynamic acoustics) very seriously … if you get this wrong, the whole building starts to shake,” he said.
The nature of these large projects result in large fluctuations in the company’s revenues. To smooth out the peaks and valleys, MDS Aero wants to increase the share of its gross marginal revenues derived from its service business from 20 per cent to 50 per cent.
Part of its strategy involves landing additional work with existing customers, said Mr. Fitzgerald.
“We also want to move up the food chain with engine manufacturers and do more. We’ve shown that if they outsource work to us, we can do it much more cost effectively,” he said.
Last October, the company completed construction of a $42-million cold weather testing and research facility in Thompson, Man., for a joint venture of Rolls Royce Canada and Pratt & Whitney Canada.
Dubbed the Global Aerospace Centre for Icing and Environmental Research, or GLACIER, the facility can accommodate the largest aircraft engines in use today, as well as the future growth of gas turbine engines with up to 150,000 pounds of thrust force and fan diameters of up to 140 inches.
MDS Aero will operate and maintain GLACIER, which Mr. Fitzgerald said will be a useful reference account in attracting new customers to its service business.
On Tuesday, Government House leader John Baird used the company’s headquarters on Old Innes Road as a backdrop to illustrate the domestic industrial benefits of Canada’s controversial planned purchase of 65 F-35 fighter jets.
He said there would be $12 billion in contracts available to Canadian companies, work a senior Lockheed Martin official previously said would be jeopardized if the government opted not to purchase the planes.
“This program brings significant benefits to Canada and Canadian industry,” said Mr. Baird.
MDS Aero was invited to participate in the F-35 program in 2001 but found itself at a disadvantage to bid on the work vis-a-vis its American competitors.
Because of Canada’s involvement in the Joint Strike Fighter program, the company is now competing on a level playing field, said Mr. Fitzgerald.
