Over the last five years, Bombardier Aerospace has seen its revenues nearly double from C$4.4 billion to C$8.5 billion, has seen profits jump from C$133 million to C$420 million, and has seen its order backlog grow from C$8 billion to C$18 billion-- and there's no end in sight.

"We have the momentum with us right now," said Bombardier Aerospace president and COO Robert Brown. "We're very much the leader in the three specific markets in which we're trying to be a global leader: business aircraft, regional aircraft and the amphibious aircraft, which has really come on strong with the effects of El Niño. We continue to proceed at a pace where we're doubling our sales every five years.

"We've got a company with good product," Brown continued. "We've got a good structure to the company, and we've got a good management team in place. We've been delivering the goods and trying to stay ahead of the market and stay ahead of our competitors as well as we can."

Part of the path to growth has been new product. The company has been certificating new aircraft at the rate of one per year, most recently the Global Express, which was licensed by Transport Canada in August. In 1997, the Learjet 45 was approved, and next year will see certification of the new, 70-seat Dash 8Q-400.

Also on the books is the 70-passenger CRJ-700 regional jet, and after that, the new midsize business jet announced here last night at the National Business Aviation Association convention in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In order to sustain its revenue growth, Brown said Bombardier will keep a sharp watch on new product development-- and the bottom line. "I think the biggest focus we need to have is that we've got to be extremely disciplined to deliver on the programs we have in place, and at the same time we're doing that, we've got to make sure we have a very sharp focus on cost. One never knows how the market will go, and I want to make sure that we maintain a degree of flexibility so that in the event something does occur, we can still maintain our momentum and maintain the return for the shareholder," he told Show News.

Brown also is signaling a slight shift in course for Bombardier Aerospace. While the company will continue to update its aircraft lines, it sees fewer opportunities for clean-sheet aircraft designs, save possibly a new entry-level business jet or possibly a regional airliner with somewhere between 70 and 100 seats.

"What we've done so far is create the critical mass of product that gives us a family of products in business aircraft and regional aircraft. It's also given us a degree of diversification because we're operating in different segments in both of those areas," Brown said. "What we'll be doing now is updating the various products we have, and we'll be looking for ways we can enhance our involvement in service-type businesses that are related to the businesses that we're in."

As an example, he cites the company's launch of Business Jet Solutions two years ago. The company, which sells shares of new business jets through its FlexJet program, will be operating 50 aircraft by the end of this year. Bombardier also has been expanding its share of the completions market, both through the acquisition of Innotech's Montreal facility and by increasing through-put at its own Tucson, Arizona completions facility. The company operates training facilities in Montreal and Berlin, too, through joint ventures.

Bombardier also is keeping a sharp eye on the regional aircraft market. It correctly foresaw the need for the regional jet, a market in which the company has a dominant position. As the market goes forward, Bombardier believes it will migrate into larger aircraft, and the company further believes there will be resurgent demand for turboprop regional airliners.

"I think there will be a balancing. There always has been in the past, and I don't see any reason why that would change right now, but we're going to have to be patient, and we're going to have to plan extremely well to take advantage of when that situation occurs with the turboprop," Brown said.

Despite the Asian crisis and some dicey times in the stock market, the company has not seen any significant signs of a softening or downturn ahead. "When you look at how long this market's gone, everybody gets nervous, but I really don't see anything. But that makes me even more vigilant.

"Now is the time we've got to cut the cost, we've got to be more efficient, we've got to improve the quality. Because it's going to happen some time or another, and whoever is best prepared for it is going to have the best chance of doing well."

By Perry Bradley