Cobham Aerospace Communications, a long history in aviation.

One could guess Cobham Aerospace Communications (c. 165 m$ of revenues in 2022, about 700 employees) is an American or British company. In fact, it is a French one, currently owned by a private equity company.  Mergers and sales have given this current name Cobham Aerospace Communications to a distant descendant of Air Precision company having a long history in aviation.

Cobham Aerospace Communications is located on 7 sites in the world including one in South Africa specialized in satcom antennas, one in Denmark specialized in aeronautical satcom system integration, one in US specialized in antennas for general and business aviation, and 3 in France where the company is focused on producing antennas, audio/radio management systems, satcom systems and lights.

Engineering site is mostly in Rungis (region of Paris) when production and system assembly is split between Dourdan and Troyes, cities in the countryside of France, between one and two hours from Paris. Both cities have left their mark in French history.  Born in Dourdan, French king Hughes Capet is at the origin of the oldest royal dynasty in male succession in the world. A castle turned museum in the center of the city reminds us of that time.   During the Middle-Ages, Troyes was an important international trading town and thus kept a great historical past and a rich architectural and urban heritage still visible today. This environment, not that far from Paris and very quiet, offers an unmatchable quality of life. It has proved quite powerful to attract new employees, both for production and for engineering functions, and especially those who are striving to improve their work/ family life balance.

The production sites reflect the company’s image and the diversity of its product range: very modern in many aspects (e.g. high-tech manufacture of complex electronic cards with the latest equipment), and more traditional with manual tasks performed by highly qualified personnel. The company is working about continuously improving all its processes with for example more robots, simpler production flows, deployment of lean practices, or investment into more automatic and more worker-friendly work stations.

To further facilitate its technologies development and lead the competition, Cobham Aerospace Communications participates to several clusters: one is AERIADES, a network of companies, technology transfer centers, educational and research institutions, united by their desire to strengthen and develop the aerospace industry in France Grand Est region.  Cobham Communications is working too with another cluster called Safe, the French competitiveness cluster focused on Aeronautics & space, Security & Safety, Defense and Environment sectors.

Cobham Aerospace Communications participates also to French Government CORAC which organizes and prioritizes the research work of the civil aeronautics sector. CORAC’s Roadmap makes the environmental transition of aviation a priority, with the ambition of making the French and European industry the pioneer in the decarbonization of air transport. Cobham Aerospace Communications is fully involved toward a greener environment, working for example on such structuring projects for the decarbonation of air transport as the optimization of aircraft trajectory or the optimization of the management of the airspace.

Thanks to its acquired expertise,  which is truly unique in Europe, Cobham Aerospace Communications is a world leader in antennas including the most complex ones as satcom ones. This sector is expected to grow significantly in the coming years due to the increase in Communications needs (media, navigation and communications, defense) and associated higher number of means being developed. For example, the multiplication of LEO (Low Earth Orbit) constellations in the near futurel: SpaceX, Starlink, Kuiper, Telesat, Iridium, Globalstar may generate a wide range of opportunities for Cobham Aerospace Communications.

To drive the company in the desired growth direction, in this market of aircraft connectivity where growth potential is very significant compared with other segments of the aviation industry, and where many players are currently attempting to construct a market position, Cobham Aerospace Communications shareholder has picked up several talented professionals in the aeronautical sector to build up the management team of the company, two of whom we had the opportunity to meet:  Mr Nicolas BONLEUX, formerly Managing Director at Liebherr Aerospace and Transportation, has taken Cobham Aerospace Communications top job of CEO.  And Mr. Yves AMBIEHL, formerly Sales Director at CMC Electronics, has taken the SVP Marketing & Sales position. Their challenge is great but we are under the strong impression that the management team gathers all the required abilities to succeed on this ballooning and competitive sector. Nadia Didelot for AeroMorning

For more detailed review of Cobham Aerospace Communications and access to CEO Nicolas BONLEUX interview , please click on the link : https://aeromorning.com/en/cobham-aerospace-communications/