Discussion Prompt:

Assume that you are the project manager at Textron Aviation (TXT). Textron Aviation products include corporate and business, personal, and military aircraft. For purposes of this discussion, you have knowledge that in recent years most of Textron Aviation’s military products have, where possible, been outfitted with Winglets. Further, the design of these wing components has evolved to make them more efficient and maximize the fuel savings they provide. Textron Aviation flight operations manager reports finding that the addition of Winglets to an existing aircraft offers fuel savings of approximately 3% of the gas bill, or 150,000 gallons of jet fuel per year (Aviation Partners, Inc., n.d.). At a cost of $1.06 per gallon (which for simplicity, we will assume to be stable), this is a significant source of cost-reduction which accrues to the end user over the useful life of an aircraft. While the useful life of the corporate craft is 30 years, Textron's research indicates that clients typically use a 10-year planning horizon, at most.

Tasks:

As Textron's production manager, you have been asked to offer an evaluation of the following:

If Textron chooses to discount these savings at a rate of 15% per year of useful life, considering only a 10 year planning horizon, what is the potential cost savings to the customer over the life of this plane? Evaluate the potential financial benefit to Textron of adding winglets to an existing corporate aircraft, if the cost to Textron of each winglet is $556,000 per craft, assuming that demand for corporate aircraft will allow Textron to increase the craft’s price by the full amount of the savings accruing to the customer (Aviation Partners Boeing, 2016).

The manager that originally brought this idea forward understood this addition of Winglets to represent a net increase in revenues of almost double of the price of the Winglet. As Textron's production manager, it is your opinion that this estimate may not encompass facts related to project production and financing. Using concepts covered in this and previous modules, analyze additional concepts that indicate other concerns that we might have in making this change, including the impact on other areas of financial policy. Calculate the rate of return that would make the net present value of this project equal to zero, and comment on its importance in terms of the impact of this project, through the diversion of existing resources, and on future growth and sustainability in the face of fluctuating revenues.