Innovative Solutions and Support Inc (ISSC) 2019 Q4 法說會逐字稿

完整原文

使用警語:中文譯文來源為 Google 翻譯,僅供參考,實際內容請以英文原文為主

  • Operator

  • Good morning, and welcome to the Innovative Solutions and Support Fourth Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Chairman and CEO, Geoffrey Hedrick. Please go ahead.

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • Good morning. This is Geoff Hedrick. I'd like to welcome you this morning to our conference call to discuss our performance for the fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2019, current business conditions and our outlook for the coming year.

  • Joining me are Shahram Askarpour, our President; and Relland Winand, our CFO.

  • Before I begin, I'd like Relland to read our safe harbor message. Thanks.

  • Relland M. Winand - CFO

  • Thank you, Geoff, and good morning, everyone. I would remind our listeners that certain matters discussed in the conference call today, including new products and operational and financial results for future periods are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, either better or worse from those discussed, including other risks and uncertainties reflected in our company's 10-K, which is on file with the SEC and other public filings. Now I would turn the call back to Geoff.

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • Thanks, Rell. The company's revenue, operating results and operating cash flow showed significant improvements from both a year ago and a quarter as well sequentially from the third quarter of this fiscal year.

  • Fiscal 2019 results reflect cost controls and marketing focus I initiated in fiscal 2018.

  • This strong finish enabled us to record a significant increase in all our key financial metrics this year, with revenues growing 27% over fiscal 2018.

  • We ended fiscal 2019 with the best quarter of new orders and the highest orderly -- quarterly intake in more than 2 years. And that only includes a portion of the orders we expect to get from Pilatus for their production of the very successful PC-24. And in 2020, they have indicated that they intend to increase annual production by 25% and from the 40 aircraft they will deliver in 2019.

  • I attribute these results to our disciplined commitment to better leverage our core technologies and innovation in our designs in both the commercial, general aviation and military markets. Driven by the growth of production sales of our platform displays, utility management systems as well as ongoing contribution of our repair and maintenance operation, we expanded gross margins to over 56% this year.

  • The primary focus is production revenues, developing new products has been the foundation in which the company has built. It is why compared to many other companies, like ourselves, we believe we have a higher proportion of investment in research and development.

  • So we're open to opportunistic funded development contracts, such as new air data computer being developed by the -- for the Navy aircraft, which we believe has both domestic and international production sales potential.

  • Our focus on innovation is why we have adopted a strategy of investing in a fewer but more promising markets and products. One of the more promising technology we have developed is a patented ThrustSense autothrottle. With autothrottle STCs for both single- and twin-engine aircraft secured, we have products that address a market that is estimated to be over 5,000 aircraft.

  • The FAA's certification of engine-out, loss of control mitigation function is a breakthrough and a major milestone. This service -- this certification -- autothrottle technology on the market and is certified to mitigate uncontrolled catastrophic accidents in engine-out situations of multiengine aircraft. Loss of control mitigation is the major safety feature of the autothrottle. So it required a separate special FAA certification, which took us over 2 years to complete, principally, because it's never been done before. We are humbled to bring this new technology that has potential to save lives. In order to make the ThrustSense more cost-effective, we are also developing means and methods to reduce installation time, which not only helps get the aircraft operational sooner but can reduce costs to the aircraft owner and operator.

  • Right now, our plan is to continue to pursue additional STCs in the retrofit market on aircraft with large existing fleets. We are also talking to a number of OEMs who've expressed interest in our autothrottles. Expanding our OEM business should, we believe, provide an additional stability in our revenues. We see a large market opportunity for the ThrustSense, and we continue to increase its function by adding new enhancements.

  • So in the fourth quarter, revenue's up sequentially for the seventh time in 8 quarters and an improvement in bookings. We have a solid foundation to build our autothrottle business. Let me turn it over to Rell for discussion on financials.

  • Relland M. Winand - CFO

  • Thank you, Geoff, and thank you all for joining us this morning. For the fourth quarter of 2019, the company reported net sales of $44.8 million (sic) [$4.8 million], a 33% increase from $3.6 million in the fourth quarter a year ago. That is our fourth consecutive quarter of revenue growth, the seventh quarter in the last 8 years, we have generated sequential revenue growth and follows the 35% growth of revenues achieved in the third quarter. We had another strong quarter of product sales and customer service revenue, which led to a very strong 59.5% gross margin, our best fully gross margin in several years. Margins are benefiting from the steady increases in revenue, which has enabled us to better leverage our fixed manufacturing costs and lower material costs due to product mix.

  • In addition, the company also benefited from reduced warranty costs in the quarter, reflecting both reduced warranty costs being incurred and reserves that were required for longer-term warranty periods ending. Total operating expenses for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019 were $2 million, a decrease of $300,000 from the same quarter a year ago. Total operating expenses are also down sequentially from the third quarter. Research and development expenses in this quarter were $522,000, which is less than that of a year ago, reflecting our strategy to narrow our new product development efforts on fewer but more promising new technologies.

  • Selling, general and administrative expenses in the quarter were down approximately $200,000 from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018. Since the workforce reduction in late fiscal 2018, general and administrative expenses have normalized at this quarter's current rates.

  • In the quarter, we earned $118,000 of other income, primarily in interest from our cash balances. In the fourth quarter, we recorded a small income tax benefit, reflecting the utilization of some of our available tax loss carryforwards.

  • The company reported its most profitable quarter in several years, nearly doubling our net income from just 3 months ago, with fourth quarter net income of $1 million or $0.06 per share. In the fourth quarter of last year, we reported a net loss of $414,000 or $0.03 per share.

  • Quickly looking at the results for the year. Total revenues were $17.6 million, up 27% from $13.9 million for full year 2018. The company reported fiscal 2019 net income of $1.9 million or $0.11 per share, a significant improvement from a net loss of $3.7 million or $0.22 per share for fiscal 2018. We believe that the company remains in a strong financial position. We generated over $2 million of positive cash flow in fiscal 2019 and had $22.4 million of cash on hand at September 30, 2019, the company is debt-free.

  • We believe the company has sufficient cash to fund operations for the foreseeable future. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Shahram.

  • Shahram Askarpour - President

  • Thank you, Rell. Good morning, everyone. As Geoff related, we had good performance in the fourth quarter which led to a significant year-over-year increase in all of our key financial metrics, revenue, margins, earnings and cash flow. Many of the factors that drove our success over the last 12 months are holding pace, in some cases, improving. But headed into the new year, we believe our greatest growth opportunity, launched in our latest technology, our ThrustSense autothrottle.

  • So let me take a minute to elaborate on some of our comments to provide a better appreciation of why we so strongly believe in this technology. We now have STCs on both single- and twin-engine general aviation aircraft. And we are working on additional STCs as well as developing additional features that enhance the value of our existing certified autothrottles. Included in the new technologies in our proprietary -- is our proprietary Vmca Mitigation technology, which believe is by far the most valuable. The Vmca Mitigation is the first-of-kind STC. And since this catastrophic loss of control mitigation feature have never been done before, the FAA had no reference certification background to consult when evaluating our technology.

  • Three separate organizations within the FAA being our aircraft certification office, the small airplane standard branch and small aircraft evaluation group, had to come to terms and develop acceptable means for certification of the safety critical system.

  • Since the announcement and demonstrations made by IS&S to mitigate the fatal condition caused by a loss of directional control during an engine-out condition, the industry experts and media have published various supporting articles for our technology. Consequently, you can appreciate why the recent receipt of this STC has us greatly excited about the prospects for autothrottle, especially installed in multiengine aircraft types.

  • While Vmca Mitigation is the biggest new feature of our autothrottle programs, we are making other valuable improvements as well.

  • Previously, we had emphasized on the importance of reducing the installation time. And we have cut our King Air autothrottle installation time almost in half by including our standby instrument within the same unit that performs the autothrottle functionality as part of this recent STC.

  • A final note on the autothrottle is that we are in negotiations with some OEMs for inclusion of our autothrottle as standard equipment in their production aircraft.

  • We believe that all these efforts will lead to a strong demand for this technology that not only reduces pilot workload but is believed to be potentially lifesaving. And as previously mentioned, while we are investing heavily in the growth of our autothrottle business, it comes at a time when the performance of our base business remains solid. Just quickly reviewing the programs driving current results, the PC-24 program has been running at a fairly healthy level in support of the 40 aircraft Pilatus expects to deliver this year.

  • That should jump to around 50 next year to meet the increasing demand for what has been quickly recognized as one of the most successful new aircraft launches in recent memory.

  • Again, since this is a long-term contract, which we believe will span multiple years and generate demand for thousands of units, only a fraction of that ultimate value is in our backlog. In the commercial air transport market, we are experiencing steady demand for our Boeing 757 and 767 portfolio of cost and technology. As I mentioned last quarter, we believe, in part, due to the sunsetting of support for the remaining CRT displays in service.

  • Many of the domestic and international owners flying these aircraft tend to be smaller operators that typically rely on the MRO channels for upgrades, and therefore, we continue to support our distribution channels. Many of these sales are of products that are close to off-the-shelf, making them more profitable.

  • In the military market, our production KC-46 program continues forward as new orders are being received.

  • The Navy F-5 engineering contract to develop a new air data computer has been completed. We anticipate the production order will be ordered to us to retrofit the U.S. Navy F-5 fleet with the new air data computer.

  • New orders in the fourth quarter were our best in 2 years. And at September 30, we had the highest year-end backlog in 3 years. We have also seen a steady flow of repair and maintenance revenue as the company continues to ship more equipment in the field, it follows that the need to support and maintain that equipment continues to grow.

  • Let me turn the call back to Geoff for some closing remarks.

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • Thank you, Shahram. Fiscal 2019 was a year of strong financial performance as well as a year of encouraging progress, creating virtually, an entirely new market. As we previously discussed, we are taking a very measured and deliberate approach to maturing an autothrottle market. At the same time, we're committed to leveraging our existing technologies to generate profits and cash and provide the time we need to make sure that our new technology has the greatest opportunity for success.

  • A new certification currently awarded for Vmca Mitigation is really a pivotal event in the evolution of this emerging market. We continue to invest resources as needed to cultivate the market and believe, over time, this investment will be rewarded.

  • I'll turn it over to the operator.

  • Operator

  • (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from David Campbell of Thompson, Davis & Company.

  • David Pearce Campbell - Senior VP, Research Analyst & Institutional Sales Partner

  • You're beginning to be substantially profitable, again. I take it the PC-24 production increase projected for next year. Now is that any of that in the backlog of $6 million?

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • No.

  • Shahram Askarpour - President

  • Some of it is. Some of it is. Well, virtually, none.

  • David Pearce Campbell - Senior VP, Research Analyst & Institutional Sales Partner

  • Virtually, none. So the backlog is for contracts for the KC-46 and some other military applications?

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • That's correct.

  • Shahram Askarpour - President

  • It's actually 130.

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • We had -- remember, our fiscal year is offset from the calendar year. But there's not a lot of PC-24 in there. PC-24 has been probably the most remarkably successful new airplane program we've seen in a long time. They've done a great job. And we're fortunate to be on it. The KC-46 is an ongoing program that we continue to support and have a -- pretty much a planned revenue stream continuous for a long time.

  • David Pearce Campbell - Senior VP, Research Analyst & Institutional Sales Partner

  • Right. The autothrottle, however, did have -- you received approval from the FAA, but you had revenues from it in the quarter, is that right?

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • We -- look, we received a number of STCs recently, but the most important, most significant is the one for multiengine aircraft, this business about mitigating an engine out, which sadly ends up being a catastrophic event. So the FAA has approved that, and that will go into production this coming calendar year. And we are optimistic because it's -- it works. It's probably the best part.

  • David Pearce Campbell - Senior VP, Research Analyst & Institutional Sales Partner

  • Is that what you're principally negotiating with original equipment manufacturers?

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • Yes. We've had, as you can expect, there's been a number of OEMs that have expressed interest in it. It has application also military and commercial markets as well. It is applicable, though any multiengine aircraft, in which a loss of a single engine can cause an out-of-control condition that sadly doesn't end well, typically. So -- but anyway, that's what it's there for. It works. And the FAA has approved it. And they showed really very good, thorough judgment and investigated. As they said, this is new technology, and it requires a great deal of review before certification is approved.

  • David Pearce Campbell - Senior VP, Research Analyst & Institutional Sales Partner

  • And it is to be primarily for manufacturers of business aircraft?

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • No. It's applicable to military aircraft, lift aircraft, to a broad number of [aircraft.]

  • Relland M. Winand - CFO

  • As well as the transport.

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • And now transport. Any -- there was an airplane. What happens is, the airplane slows down a little too much with an engine out or folding, it rolls over on its back, and when it does, it's extremely difficult to recover from. And what our system does is it anticipates that condition and makes modifications to the thrust to allow the flight crew to maintain control of the airplane.

  • David Pearce Campbell - Senior VP, Research Analyst & Institutional Sales Partner

  • And this -- none of this is in the backlog, right?

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • None of it's in the backlog.

  • Shahram Askarpour - President

  • Yes.

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • We didn't -- we don't take orders until we have the certification. And it's been a long road, but we've tested it a lot. I can attest to that, by the way. It's exciting when it works. When it doesn't work, let me tell you.

  • David Pearce Campbell - Senior VP, Research Analyst & Institutional Sales Partner

  • And this is not -- the PC-24 is not -- does not use this equipment? Is that right?

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • No. PC-24 -- right now, we focused on the Turboprop aircraft, and that's a turbofan aircraft. The PC-24 has its own mitigation system that does something similarly. It doesn't do the same thing, but because we have some patents on -- the patents pending on this mitigation technology.

  • David Pearce Campbell - Senior VP, Research Analyst & Institutional Sales Partner

  • Right. Right. So at this point, as far as revenues are concerned for fiscal 2020, I mean you don't really know what they're going to be, but if this program is successful, they ought to be up from 2019, is that right?

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • That's true. It depends on how fast it swings into production. But we'll -- I guess, the truth is, we're optimistic. We know there is a significant revenue and profit opportunity out in the future. The exact timing, again, is a little uncertain because it's all new technology.

  • David Pearce Campbell - Senior VP, Research Analyst & Institutional Sales Partner

  • Right. Right. And you're not -- competition can't take the business from you?

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • I never say that. I never say that. I can only tell you that there's nobody else that's doing what we're doing. It's taken us 2 years to get it certified and we have a number of patents and patents pending. So other than that, I can always say that -- and if we do our job, we'll run like beavers and work our butts off to make it happen. So if we do that, we have a wonderful opportunity.

  • Operator

  • Our next question comes from George Marema of Pareto Venture (sic) [Ventures].

  • George Marema;Pareto Ventures;Founding Owner and Managing General Partner

  • I had some questions regarding the autothrottle. I'm trying to understand better the cadence of the go-to-market on this. So is it ready for sale today? Or do we need one more clearance? Or is it ready to go now?

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • It is very ready for sale today. We have developed a couple of improvements, which, we believe, should be included in the production installations. So the answer is yes and no. It's yes, it's ready to go, and we can sell it today than sell it as (inaudible) but we expect a couple of improvements, which we will have implemented within the month or so. So it's on track, I guess, is a more accurate explanation.

  • George Marema;Pareto Ventures;Founding Owner and Managing General Partner

  • And then on the go-to-market for 2020. I hear a lot of talk on OEMs, is -- walk me through the cadence of your strategy? Is it mostly OEM stuff? You're trying to go more to the MROs in the aftermarkets? Or how are you going to market on this? And what's the cadence of it?

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • Yes. We have equipment manufacturers -- multiengine equipment manufacturers that have expressed interest. We've had ones from -- in Europe and in the United States. And we're talking to them about them implementing it in their production aircraft. But the unit was actually intended and designed for retrofit application, where there's an enormous existing market, much bigger than even sustained production for the next 10 years would look like. And that market is -- continues to look very strong, and we're expanding in that so the way we do it is we go after it is we've been pursuing the aftermarket through FBOs and certified as installers. And depending on the aircraft through MROS, in some cases, there may be military aircraft where you have military installers. It's kind of -- because it's very cost-effective. It's -- the autothrottle system is typically 1/2 or 1/3 the cost of previous competitive systems. And it has the added feature for this loss of control mitigation.

  • George Marema;Pareto Ventures;Founding Owner and Managing General Partner

  • So have MROs and installers started placing orders yet for this, for 2020?

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • They haven't because we haven't had it certified. It literally became certified 4 days ago. So we could sell the autothrottle, but we knew the -- any -- they knew that we were working on Vmca Mitigation. And until that gets STC, we can't install it in an airplane. And so it's -- the market's moving quickly. It's something new. It has never been done before. So we don't have any historical reference.

  • George Marema;Pareto Ventures;Founding Owner and Managing General Partner

  • Okay. So I would expect a lot of pent-up demand given the recent crashes and all the activity.

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • I'm -- the older I get, the more prudent I become. I'm delighted and excited about it. It's really almost humbling. But I think we need to do our job and work hard and see if we -- see if it matures until as big as opportunity as we initially believed.

  • Operator

  • Our next question comes from Charlie Pine of Van Clemens & Co.

  • Charlie Pine;Van Clemens & Co., Inc.;Analyst

  • First of all, congratulations on a great quarter. And congratulations on a wonderful turnaround year. You -- the hard work is starting to pay off and delighted to see it.

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • Well, thank you for that. It's been very rewarding, as you can imagine. And Shahram and the team have done a great job. So we're delighted. We've been able to develop new -- a really innovative technology, while we've been able to produce a profit and show some reasonable growth in the business. So we're pleased. We need to keep it up, I guess...

  • Charlie Pine;Van Clemens & Co., Inc.;Analyst

  • Well, hopefully, it will be even more rewarding in the next couple of years.

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • We hope so.

  • Charlie Pine;Van Clemens & Co., Inc.;Analyst

  • Okay. I have a couple of questions. I want to scratch the surface a little bit more on this -- on the recent developments with the autothrottle. So I understood, I guess, from your answer to the previous question that you just got the engine-out certification on December 8. Is that correct?

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • Monday. Whenever that was.

  • Charlie Pine;Van Clemens & Co., Inc.;Analyst

  • Monday? Okay.

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • It's been a long time between drinks. Trust me.

  • Charlie Pine;Van Clemens & Co., Inc.;Analyst

  • Yes. It has been. Do you anticipate putting out a separate press release for that?

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • We will. Obviously, because of the timing, which do we release first and because we have great respect for the SEC, we thought we'd be prudent.

  • Charlie Pine;Van Clemens & Co., Inc.;Analyst

  • Okay. I totally understand. The other thing, I guess, I'm a little bit confused about, you said that there's a few little nips and tucks that have to be done to really get this to the point where you're going to actually start putting it into aircraft, like the King Airs. So Geoff, when do you actually really believe that you'll start to get the -- to actually recognize some revenue and do some of the first installs? It doesn't sound like it's going to happen in the current quarter, but you think we'll start to see some of this in the January quarter? Or is it going to be pushed back into March to June quarter?

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • Well, for sure, not this quarter because we don't have any time to do anything, but...

  • Charlie Pine;Van Clemens & Co., Inc.;Analyst

  • Yes. I get that.

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • We would expect the market to start -- an installation to start in the first or second quarter of next year, calendar one.

  • Shahram Askarpour - President

  • (inaudible) it's going to start slow. So then (inaudible) come to terms and installation.

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • I mean...

  • Charlie Pine;Van Clemens & Co., Inc.;Analyst

  • I'm sorry, Shahram, can you say that -- I didn't hear anything. Can you say that again, please?

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • What Shahram was explaining over his bagel was that the aircraft, you have to schedule it in. You have to have time with the installer, you have to get the equipment delivered on lead time. And all of that is typically 3 to 6 months. So those delays are built into the market acceptance per se of the equipment.

  • Charlie Pine;Van Clemens & Co., Inc.;Analyst

  • Okay. So we should factor a fairly deliberate and slow ramp than it -- over the next few quarters, though -- with the idea, though, that we will begin to see installs in 2020.

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • We -- Yes. Yes. And importantly, you just have to watch this climb. And as it -- this is one of those programs, I believe, that will generate momentum behind it. And so as it proceeds, you'll see it proceed more rapidly and the growth will be more exponential rather than it is linear.

  • Charlie Pine;Van Clemens & Co., Inc.;Analyst

  • What about the uptake with the ThrustSense, the STC that I guess you got or what was it, the PC-12? Are you getting any installs in that?

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • Yes. We're starting with that as well. So both areas are going well. We're looking -- our focus right now, just to let you know, is to look at a number of new aircraft, primarily multiengine because most new airplanes are multiengine. But it offers for both aircraft, engine protection, which is important. If you over-temperature an engine, you're talking about probably $100,000 to check just to make sure it's okay. So things like that really pay off, so they could be quantified, beside the obvious performance and safety advantages.

  • Charlie Pine;Van Clemens & Co., Inc.;Analyst

  • All right. Finally, and the last thing I'd like to get clarified, can you refresh my memory again for what particular aircraft that you have the computer contract with the Navy for? And what was that?

  • Shahram Askarpour - President

  • F5.

  • Charlie Pine;Van Clemens & Co., Inc.;Analyst

  • You said the F5?

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • That's correct.

  • Charlie Pine;Van Clemens & Co., Inc.;Analyst

  • Okay. And if I heard you correctly in -- you said that, that air data development computer that has been completed at this point. Is that -- did I hear it correctly?

  • Shahram Askarpour - President

  • That's correct.

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • (inaudible)

  • Shahram Askarpour - President

  • They have all been flight-tested. So...

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • We're waiting for the go ahead to the -- it's a retrofit program. We're waiting for that to start. And we're prepared to do it. But we've made a lot of -- as you know, we've -- well, may not know, we've made probably 6,000 in any computers and various types over the years. So it's nothing new, but it's probably one of the reasons we won the program.

  • Charlie Pine;Van Clemens & Co., Inc.;Analyst

  • I see. That's great. What about -- when do you think that -- you indicated that you're expecting to get production orders, what would be a reasonable time frame for receipt of such.

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • As I said before, I don't want to speculate. I mean there are a lot of pieces in to get it started. But we would hope early next year, we would start seeing influx of production orders. And it's a limit to how many we could take in. Remember, you got to get installers wind-up and trained, et cetera, so that the lead times all stretch it out.

  • As Shahram commented, we start slowly and build from there.

  • Charlie Pine;Van Clemens & Co., Inc.;Analyst

  • Okay. Well, thank you very much and -- for providing this additional color to me and to other people, I'm sure that are listening. And once again, we're really pleased to see the results for this year and looking forward to what's going to be occurring over the next couple of years. So I'll get off and let somebody else take...

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • Thank you for your interest. And I'm glad I now know that I'm here to provide color. I'll tell my directors that.

  • Charlie Pine;Van Clemens & Co., Inc.;Analyst

  • Don't get too colorful now.

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • I'm too old to be colorful.

  • Operator

  • Our next question comes from [Erwin Goldman], a private investor.

  • Unidentified Participant

  • I'm the old guy. You remember me?

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • Yes. Yes. Yes. You keep doing one-upsmanship on me. I understand.

  • Unidentified Participant

  • Actually, I'm just out of the hospital, and I'm in a rehab.

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • I didn't need to hear that, but -- and I hope you're recovering well.

  • Unidentified Participant

  • I've always been curious about the employment level. How many people are working? And are we hiring?

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • We're hiring, and I won't tell you how many people, but we're hiring.

  • Unidentified Participant

  • Okay. The other thing, I think the questions got answered. We have not sold any autothrottles yet, and we do not expect to, for a number of quarters. Is that correct?

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • No, that's not correct. We have sold a number of autothrottles to the PC-12 market.

  • Unidentified Participant

  • You did. Very good.

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • And continue to do that. The product has been an evolution. We're spending time now trying to optimize its installation, which ends up being an important issue because the installers have a limited throughput capacity. So if we can reduce the time that it takes to install them, we can put in more at a higher rate, obviously. Secondly, I think we continue to find improvements and enhancements to its function so we add those as well. But as we've already installed them, we've gotten very good results in the field, no problems. And the latest installation and approval by the FAA, we'll start opening up an additional channel. In addition, we're going to look at a number of new aircraft, a number of aircraft, different aircraft and some much larger aircraft, then we can provide what is a really strong improvement in aircraft safety and crew workflow.

  • Unidentified Participant

  • So all right. My last question is, has Pilatus notified you to increase production for them for the next couple of quarters? I understand the aircraft is extremely successful.

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • On the PC-24, yes. It is a wonderful airplane, Pilatus has always done a great job. As you know, we bought a PC-12 in 2000. So I've been extremely happy with the aircraft and the support. The PC-24 is a wonderful airplane. And they -- [Eric] they've announced to us they're increasing production by 25% year-over-year, which is pretty remarkable.

  • Unidentified Participant

  • All right. Geoff, I thank you very much. I want to congratulate you guys for doing such a wonderful job and giving us such a future of -- extremely exuberance, ok? So thank you. I hope next spring...

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • Thank you. Take care of yourself. I'm glad to hear you're out. I want to make sure you're on the next phone call, all right?

  • Unidentified Participant

  • All right. Thank you. I hope to see you at the next annual meeting.

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • That will be great. Look forward to it.

  • Operator

  • (Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from [Michael Frederic], a private investor.

  • Unidentified Participant

  • I had a just a question about the flat panel display units. They appear to be the main driver of the company's sales over the last 10 years or so. How much of a contribution can we expect from that area going forward? And has that been the main driver of growth for the year so far?

  • Shahram Askarpour - President

  • PC-24 was also a big driver of growth last year. We expect that the revenues from the air transport-side of the flat panels, that would stay at this level for the near future at least.

  • Unidentified Participant

  • Okay. And I know you've been installing these for quite a while. I mean what is the life of this installation? How often does it need to be turned over? Or is it just something that requires a software upgrade every once in a while? Is there any repeat business on this installation?

  • Shahram Askarpour - President

  • Once they actually get -- once you get installed in an airplane and one of the remarkable things we've seen, we looked at the American Airline fleet, for example. And we were getting over 100,000 hours of mean time between failures. That's many years going without any failures, which is remarkable. And so this is why we have a very good name in the industry with reference to those air transport displays. And we get repeat business just by other people coming in and buying our system despite the OEM, and it's one of our competitors and they provide a retrofit solution for the same airplane, but people tend to buy ours for -- because of our quality and long history.

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • And our focus toward minimizing the cost and time to install the equipment, if you take their commercial air transport, as an example. Our system installs in a matter of 3 or 4 days. Competitive systems are as much as 30 days. And when an airplane sits on the ground, it loses revenue of somewhere, depending on the aircraft from $50,000 to $75,000 a day.

  • The installation becomes virtually an order of magnitude, more of an impact the delay than the cost of the basic equipment.

  • Unidentified Participant

  • Okay. Great. Great. And just one quick general question and that would be it. If you talk to any of the installers right now, most of them are still pretty busy with the FAA mandates for this year. But can you give a little bit of an idea of once this -- once the NextGen installations go into play, how much more valuable is something like ThrustSense in that world than sort of the world we're leaving behind?

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • We have, with our ThrustSense, been able to provide a huge number of aircraft potentially, the ability to do what is becoming increasing demand for required navigational performance. That is, ASP and NextGen is trying to keep the aircraft position, very well controlled, and the timing of the aircraft in as it goes through its flight phase, very carefully defined. That enables them to put more aircraft in play or in service over the same airspace. And the autothrottle is, in many of those cases, invaluable. It's been proven in the necessity for the system -- in flight management systems in commercial and military aircraft. It was proven even 4 years ago, we posted performance compute (inaudible). So anyway, it's -- I believe that that it will have the -- NextGen will put an additional demand in -- demand on ThrustSense.

  • Unidentified Participant

  • Great. Great. And just one more quick question, and I'll let you go and that is the newly certified STC. How much will -- will that make a material change in the cost of the purchase of an autothrust? In other words, will that be an additional purchase that goes with the existing autothrusters as part of the overall package?

  • Shahram Askarpour - President

  • If I understand your question, you're saying that the new STC for the Vmca, is that going to increase the cost of installation?

  • Unidentified Participant

  • Not the cost of installation, but the actual cost of the purchase.

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • Correct. So...

  • Shahram Askarpour - President

  • Yes. I mean we have a pricing strategy to potentially offer that as an option, but we believe that everybody is going to take that option.

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • And I'll tell you, it's not a huge cost increase. But obviously, when you need it, it's a very nice thing to have. Sadly, there have been accidents, most recently in places like Texas and Hawaii, and even -- and this is applicable to even piston twins, a lot like went down right in our neighborhood. We don't know exactly what the cause was. But it is well understood that if you end up with a single-engine with an engine out that you risk -- you have to keep the speed up. You don't keep the speed up, it can end badly.

  • Unidentified Participant

  • Yes. Yes. Yes. The Texas one certainly sounded like that's what -- or at least that could have been the cause of what happened anyway. So all right, gentlemen. Well, thank you for your time, and good luck.

  • Geoffrey S. M. Hedrick - Founder, Chairman & CEO

  • You're welcome. Thank you for your interest. I guess that's the end of it. I appreciate everybody's interest today. Thanks for attending.

  • Operator

  • This concludes the question-and-answer session and concludes the Innovative Solutions and Support Fourth Quarter 2019 Earnings Call. We thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.