Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with&nbsp;New Jersey Monthly&nbsp;magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.

Senior Editor

Gregory Polek

Protectionists have sounded the familiar alarms over GE’s joint venture with China’s Avic, formalized during January’s state visit to Washington by Chinese president Hu Jintao. The venture, an equal partnership between GE Aviation and Avic, will involve the development and marketing of integrated, open-architecture aviation electronic systems to the global commercial aerospace industry for new aircraft programs, according to GE. On the other hand, critics such as the Washington Post’s Steven Pearlstein accuse GE of selling some of the “crown jewels” of U.S. technology for access to China’s “rigged” market, jeopardizing America’s competitive advantage in aerospace technology. Others, such as the right-wing blog Family Security Matters, insist the U.S. cannot trust the Chinese to honor agreements meant to prevent transfer of the technology for military purposes, and they’ve found a perfect symbol in the ominous images of the new <a href="?q=node/28172">Chinese J-20 stealth fighter</a> to support their case.&nbsp;
<a href="?q=node/25342">GE and Avic plan to collaborate on the central information system and backbone of the Comac C919</a>‘s networks and electronics, meant to host the airplane’s avionics, maintenance and utility functions. Under the plan, GE and Avic would continue to support their legacy programs and honor existing contracts with customers. Of course, the agreement remains subject to government approvals for which the likes of Pearlstein have called on President Barack Obama to block. Rather, they say, the U.S. should emulate the Chinese by offering subsidies and directed credit for local companies, adopting “buy-American” provisions for government agencies and government contractors, manipulating currency and adopting rules on “conditional market access” and “indigenous innovation.” Ironically, the same conservative critics remain steadfastly opposed to what they regard as illegal subsidies at European airframer Airbus.
For her part, GE Aviation Systems president Lorraine Bolsinger insisted that the partnership resulted from more than two years of consultation with “leading” trade and commerce experts to ensure intellectual property protection. More important, she said, the partnership’s goal centers on the joint creation of intellectual property and its sale to customers around the world, not just China.
GE estimates that its business with China already sustains 1,800 full-time jobs in the U.S., including 300 committed to the GE/Avic venture.
In fact, U.S. aerospace suppliers see little choice but to engage with the world’s second-largest economy. Chinese airlines now operate more than 2,500 jet engines produced by GE and its joint venture with Snecma, CFM International, and hold orders for another 1,000 engines on back order. In business with the Chinese aerospace industry since the mid-1980s, GE and, indeed, the likes of Boeing, already derive a large part of their revenues from the business the People’s Republic generates.

GE-Avic Deal Highlights Old Suspicions

Protectionists have sounded the familiar alarms over GE’s joint venture with China’s Avic, formalized during January’s state visit to Washington by Chinese

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