Net income was up by one-third at Iowa’s Rockwell Collins in the third quarter of this fiscal year. The Cedar-Rapids-based maker of avionics, navigation and entertainment systems for military and civilian aircraft logged its third year of improvement since taking a downturn following 9-11. President and C-E-O Clay Jones told investors in a webcast this (Thursday) morning Rockwell Collins has been part of the general recovery in the commercial aerospace industry. He says it’s the third consecutive quarter in which both the commercial and government business delivered double-digit revenue growth, as he says total sales increased by 20 percent. Jones says by any standard, 2005 is shaping up to be a great year for Rockwell Collins. Earnings per share were up 33-percent over the same quarter last year, and that made it a third quarter in a row of earnings growth that beat 30-percent. The president of Rockwell Collins says one major triumph is managing the growth of the company’s operating capital, and controlling its cash flow. In the first 9 months of the company’s current fiscal year, Jones says they generated operating cash-flow totaling 345-Million dollars — even after a voluntary contribution of 100-Million to the company’s pension plans. Demand’s grown for business jets, and in addition to its jobs for the military, Rockwell serves the private aviation market. Jones says both the company’s military contracts and the its civilian jetliner clients contributed to the strong earnings.
