General Motors features in the first of WikiLeaks diplomatic documents involving the global automotive industry. More leaks centering on the motor industry can be expected in 2011 – even as the site’s front man, Julian Assange, faces an uncertain future.

A leaked November 2009 US State Department memo reveals that German chancellor Angela Merkel was furious when GM last year decided to keep Opel after reneging on a sell-out deal with Canadian supplier Magna International. The memo was among more than 250,000 secret US diplomatic documents posted last month by WikiLeaks.

In a cable sent from the US embassy in Berlin entitled "GM Decision not to sell Opel greeted by shock and anger in Germany" it was noted:

“A high-level source indicated that Chancellor Merkel is furious over the GM move and refuses to talk to GM's leadership. It is likely only a matter of time before critics will call Merkel herself into account for her strong support of the now-collapsed Magna deal."

“The decision, which followed repeated assurances from GM that it was a done deal, came as a complete shock in Germany and dominated media coverage throughout the day. Merkel herself was reportedly highly upset over GM's flip flop.“

Collapse of the deal with Magna proved a political setback for chancellor Merkel who had been pushing it for months to protect German jobs.

A German official reportedly blamed the US government for the bad management of the situation, saying “if the US government had GM under better control, this would not have happened."

Other leaked confidential documents portray chancellor Merkel as the only European leader equipped to lead Europe. Discussing the leadership claim, the London Telegraph says: “Detailed American assessments of the German Chancellor and her coalition governments, first with the Social Democrats and then after Sep 2009 the liberal FDP, portray a leader who only stands out because of the low quality of other European heads of government.

‘Angela Merkel's role as Germany's and Europe's leader is undisputed. No other leader of a large member state is politically fit enough to offer himself up as a leader’, noted a confidential cable in April 2007. ‘However, she is conscious that her strength derives largely from the weakness of her counterparts and other factors beyond her control’.

“The Wikileaks diplomatic documents spell out how Chancellor Merkel used negotiations over the Lisbon Treaty to assert ‘German and her personal leadership’ over the EU during a period when Tony Blair was handing over power to Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy was not yet French President.

“By 2009, while ‘Teflon Merkel’ is still seen by the US as the EU's most important leader, American diplomats note that her star has slipped as she was battered by the economic crisis and political pressures that made her more ‘circumspect’ as an ally of the US”.

Autobahn Alley on Manhattan’s 11th Avenue between 48th and 58th Street is thriving while similar stretches in major US cities like Boston and Minnesota have floundered in recent years, according to a recent US media report.

It points to the growing strength of the importers and their need for suitable venues to display product in a continuing tough US vehicle market.

Referring to Autobahn Alley, the New York Times says: “In what real estate brokers and auto industry executives are calling the biggest burst of activity in more than a decade, several auto brands are expanding or relocating along the corridor, with a planned Mercedes-Benz flagship on 54th Street the most recent example”.

The 100,584 sqm five-storey Mercedes dealership – the only US dealership directly owned by Mercedes -- will have glass on three sides, a waiting room with Wi-Fi, a coffee and pastry bar, and a garage with 72 work bays. It is due to open early next year.

Mercedes-Benz of Manhattan began its search for a flagship site about six years ago. The dealership’s president Alan McLaren says: “New York is one of our most critical markets in the country. The dealership is consistently one of our top five dealerships in the country, and if ever there’s a place where you need to get it right, it’s right here, where the performance standards are arguably set higher than anywhere else in the United States.”

Also in Autobahn Alley, Volkswagen and Audi are spending about $125 million on new facilities, including 80,772 sqm of showrooms, on a site previously owned by Potamkin General Motors. It followed a two-year search by VW and was fuelled by New York’s thirst for luxury brands, according to the real estate agent.

Infiniti of Manhattan is seeking a new home in Autobahn Alley because a residential project is replacing its current location. And, fresh from bankruptcy and under Fiat control, Chrysler is said to be looking at expansion there.

Mark Schienberg, president of the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association, a trade group that represents about 425 dealerships in nine counties across New York State, says: “As far as development goes, this is easily the most activity we’ve seen there in years. There’s been just an extraordinary amount of activity that’s been going on over there.”

New York Times says: “The surge of activity on 11th Avenue is in sharp contrast to other areas of the country, where approximately 1900 dealerships have closed since 2009, said Paul Taylor, the chief economist at the National Automobile Dealers Association in Virginia. Mr Schienberg said that in New York’s five boroughs, only 15 dealerships had shuttered in the last 10 years.

“The stability in New York, Mr Taylor said, can be attributed in part to 11th Avenue’s proximity to Wall Street and the financial markets, as well as the sheer number of drivers in the city. While dealerships in other areas of the country are suffering from a slump in auto sales and a move toward consolidating multiple brands under a single roof, both luxury brands and mainstream ones like Toyota and Ford are thriving on 11th Avenue.

“’The trend toward dealerships opening in Manhattan is driven in part by its province in the financial markets worldwide,’ said Mr Taylor. ‘Luxury brands are typically sold to households with significant incomes and large holdings of security outside of retirement programs. And, of course, many of those households have jobs in Manhattan.’”

The $300 million to be invested by Toyota and the Australian and Victorian governments in Toyota's Altona engine plant is aimed at further enmeshing the facility as a key part of the company's ASEAN manufacturing network.

Parent company Toyota Manufacturing Corporation said the investment to reconfigure the plant for a more fuel efficient engine for Camry and Camry Hybrid vehicles would add a new supply base to the "engine supply structure long developed among plants in the ASEAN region".

The new engine will be produced from the Altona plant from around 2012 in volumes of up to 110,000, of which more than half are planned for export within ASEAN.

The Altona vehicle and engine facility currently has a capacity to produce 147,000 Camry and Camry Hybrids and 100,000 of its AZ four cylinder engines annually. In 2009 it produced 75,940 engines and 96,864 vehicles of which more than 70 per cent were exported, mainly to the Middle East.

US and Canadian dealers are successfully taking on the new General Motors in its bid to reduce dealer numbers following discontinuation of its Pontiac, Saab, Hummer and Saturn brands.

In the lead-up to their success the dealers effectively took on the Obama administration which, a government watchdog suggests, may have acted unwisely in demanding that both General Motors and Chrysler accelerate the closing of dealerships to ensure their own viability.

Released in July, a report by Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the US Treasury's corporate bailout program, said the task force established to oversee the GM and Chrysler restructuring did not sufficiently consider the impact of accelerated dealer closings on job losses. The report also said GM was not always consistent in its approach to determining which franchises to terminate.

Decisions made by both companies in 2009 initially affected more than 2400 showrooms and led to a fierce lobbying campaign by dealers. Under pressure, Congress forced the companies to arbitrate appeals and it resulted this year in the potential reversal of a third of planned closures -- mainly at GM.

Initial plans to gradually close 1600 GM dealerships and 789 Chrysler dealerships over several years were rejected by the task force on grounds the companies needed to be more aggressive in their restructuring to ensure continued government support.

GM and Chrysler, whose bankruptcies in 2009 were facilitated by the task force, received more than $80 billion in bailout and restructuring assistance.

Internal task force memos reviewed by Neil Barofsky showed the task force "knew there might be difficulties" with accelerating dealership closings. The task force wanted the companies to take full advantage of unique laws in expedited bankruptcy to "reject dealership franchise agreements without significant upfront costs." The intention was to benefit taxpayers and to assist the companies in becoming viable as soon as possible.

Barofsky's central criticism of the task force was that it did not fully weigh the impact that dealer closings would have on job losses. The report states: "It is not at all clear that the greatly accelerated pace of the dealership closings during one of the most severe economic downturns in our nation's history was either necessary for the sake of the companies' economic survival or prudent for the sake of the nation's economic recovery."

GM responded to the task force's concerns with a new plan involving 1400 dealership retrenchments by October 2010, down 200. Chrysler's revised plan called for cutting 789 dealerships within months with no appeal.

Dealers complained the decisions were arbitrary. GM finally said it would reinstate more than 660 dealers it had threatened with closure, reducing the number of dealers planning to appeal.

GM of Canada has now made an out-of-court settlement with the 21 dealers in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Prince Edward Island who refused to sign wind-down agreements sent to them in May. Under the deal, 13 will remain open while the other dealers receive additional compensation for closing.

GM and members of the dealers group said they could not disclose key terms of the settlement because of confidentiality agreements.

The 21 dealerships argued GM used an arbitrary measure to decide which businesses to close and broke a contract that promised to automatically renew their franchises as long as they fulfilled sales and other obligations. They sought punitive damages of $1.5 million as well as additional damages for "loss of profit, loss of goodwill, loss of reputation, loss of business opportunity and loss of market share."

The “wind down agreements” offered them between $200,000 and about $1.5 million depending on sales. About 85 per cent of the dealers accepted the terms despite complaints the compensation would not cover severance and closing costs.

The dealers claimed GM acted in a “highhanded, oppressive and patently unfair” manner. They described the company’s process of reviewing the terminations as a “sham” and skewed by corporate conflicts of interest. The group sought an injunction to remain open for at least another five years.

In its defence, GM said significant cuts in the dealer network were necessary because of falling demand. GM claimed it had no choice but to close hundreds of dealerships to stay afloat during the recession.

Jonathan Lisus, who acted for the dealers, said after nine months of legal wrangling: “The lawsuit has been resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the plaintiffs and GM. As part of the settlement, a number of the plaintiffs will continue on as dealers; others will accept payment and wind down their operations. I'm sure both parties are pleased the litigation is concluded”.

Three other Canadian actions include two in Quebec and a class-action suit in Ontario involving about 200 dealers who originally signed the wind-down agreement, including waiving the right to sue the company.

They now have an action against both GM and legal firm Cassels Brock & Blackwell. The Toronto firm is alleged to have a conflict of interest, having advised both the federal government on the bailout proceedings and the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association.

David Sterns, a lawyer representing class action dealers, says: "We believe that our case is on very solid ground. We're happy that GM has seen fit to resolve its dispute with the (other dealers), but it's full steam ahead for the class action. We're fully prepared to take this case to trial and to prove our case on the merits, and if GM sees fit to try to come to a reasonable resolution, then we would be all ears".

The dealers are seeking $750 million in damages and they claim GM Canada broke franchise laws by failing to give them adequate information and that "a tremendous amount of undue pressure" was put on them.

What dealers are saying:

Robert Slessor of Ontario’s Robert Slessor Pontiac Buick, says he has accepted a cash settlement, and will take on an undisclosed brand after his 55-year relationship with GM ends in October. “We have a number of opportunities that we’re pursuing,” he says.

"We're very pleased that the ordeal has finally come to a mutual agreement. It will allow us now an opportunity for a little bit of closure regarding the situation and an opportunity to move forward with our future business plans.

"From a personal standpoint, we'll miss our association with General Motors. We've enjoyed a long-term relationship and there's mixed emotions as we move forward, but we are pleased that we've been allowed the opportunity to continue business and that the ordeal is finally behind us,"

Upper Canada Motor Sales is staying with GM under a new November operating agreement. Service manager and owner's son Marc Goupil says: "We have 28 people on staff here and everyone gets to keep their jobs. Morrisburg is not a big community; we need to keep as many businesses as possible. They thought that we were too small a market, that we wouldn't be viable (but) we've always been profitable in all the years we've been here."

Ford is clearly winning out against General Motors in the early stages of their recovery from the US auto industry’s mid-decade Dark Age.

Ford has reported five consecutive profitable quarters to GM’s two profitable quarters. In the first half, Ford chalked up $4.7 billion in profits ($2.6 billion June quarter) to GM’s $2.5 billion ($1.3 billion).

But Ford does have a dangerous debt position more than three times GM’s debt level which could still cripple the company if the US goes through a double dip recession.

Excluding pension obligations, GM exited bankruptcy in July 2009 with $17 billion debt. This was halved to $8.16 billion by the end of June. Ford reduced debt by $7 billion in the June quarter, saving $470 million in annual interest payments, but total debt still stands at $27.3 billion – to GM’s $8.16 billion.

Ford says it expects to move from an automotive net debt position to a net cash position by the end of 2011. Ford ended the June quarter with $21.9 billion of cash on hand after generating $2.6 billion in cash during the quarter. But GM ended up with $32.5 billion after generating $2.8 billion in cash during the quarter.

GM’s US market share slipped from 19.5 per cent to 18.9 per cent in the first half compared with first half 2009. Same period, Ford’s US market share rose from 16.1 per cent to 17.5 per cent.

Since 2005, Ford and GM closed plants, eliminated or sold brands and reduced dealerships. But in recent months GM and Ford have been adding jobs for the first time in years.

With its fifth straight quarterly profit Ford surprised Wall Street with a $2.6 billion profit in the second quarter and says it is on track to remain profitable in 2010. Pre-tax operating profit totaled $2.9 billion, or 68 cents a share, and a $3.5 billion improvement on second quarter 2009 and a $932 million improvement on first quarter 2010.

Ford says each automotive business operation reported a profit for the quarter and showed improvement compared with a year ago. Revenue for the quarter totaled $31.3 billion, up $4.5 billion on second quarter 2009 and was more than analysts' forecast of $29.8 billion.

GM, which has closed 14 factories and shed more than 65,000 jobs in the US, earned $1.3 billion in the second quarter, mostly in North America. It more than offset a $200-million loss in Europe and smaller profits from the rest of the world. Revenue jumped 44 per cent to $33.2 billion.

GM’s 40-day government-backed bankruptcy restructuring in 2009 led to major financial changes and the sale of four of its eight brands – Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer and Saab.

Despite slashing brands GM sold 731,000 vehicles in North America during the latest June quarter, up 85 per cent on a year earlier. But analysts have noted that 42 per cent of the passenger car sales were to rental companies, corporations and government fleets, up from nearly 30 per cent a year earlier, and points to the weakness in US retail demand.

On the dealership front, GM expects to have 4500 dealerships by November, down from 6049 before bankruptcy. Ford started 2010 with 3550 Ford, Lincoln and Mercury dealers but is winding down its Mercury division. Many of Ford’s 276 stand-alone Lincoln Mercury dealers are not expected to survive without Mercury.

GM, along with Chrysler, took the bankruptcy route, while Ford took out a $23 billion loan which provided a cash cushion against bankruptcy. It also led to stable management following the appointment in September 2006 of Alan Mulally as president and CEO.

Government assistance led to the US Treasury taking a 61 per cent equity in GM. GM is working on a change in corporate structure with a $16 billion public offering. That would allow the US and Canadian governments, as well as the UAW’s retiree health care trust, to begin selling some of the GM shares they hold.

GM is also getting in September its fourth new CEO since March 2009. Daniel Akerson, 61, who replaces Edward Whitacre Jr., also played a key role in the dumping of former CEO Frederick "Fritz" Henderson.

Mr Akerson is credited with having a no-nonsense management style and deep finance background. While he has no experience running a vehicle producer he is seen as “a hard-driven operator who will shake up GM's sometimes staid culture and push the company toward sustained profitability”.

Latest results from a host of companies – including GM, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, VW, BMW, Hyundai – all point to the global improvement.

There are still strong signs of major obstacles ahead but adroit industry maneuvering should help nullify the impact -- at least where the major companies are concerned.

* Toyota has reported its biggest quarterly profit in two years -- a net profit of 190.4 billion yen in the June quarter compared with a 77.8 billion yen loss in the previous corresponding period. Group revenues jumped 27 per cent to 4872 billion yen. Toyota has raised its sales and profit forecast for the full year and now expects to sell 7.38 million cars globally and make a net profit of 340 billion yen in its financial year from April 2010 to March 2011.

* With its fifth straight quarterly profit Ford surprised Wall Street with a $2.6 billion profit in the second quarter and says it is on track to remain profitable in 2010. Ford says each automotive business operation reported a profit for the quarter and showed improvement compared with a year ago.

* General Motors earned $1.3 billion on global revenue of $33.2 billion in the second quarter. The profit, mostly in North America, more than offset a $200-million loss in Europe and smaller profits from the rest of the world. GM lost $12.9 billion on global revenue of $23 billion in the previous corresponding quarter. In the March quarter, GM reported its first quarterly profit in nearly three years of $865 million which compared with a $6 billion loss in the same period a year earlier.

* Fiat-run Chrysler trimmed June quarter losses but warns an "extraordinary" amount of work is needed to complete its turnaround. The company reported a net loss of $172 million in the latest quarter, down from $197 million in the March quarter. Revenues rose 8.2 per cent on first quarter sales to $10.5 billion following a 22 per cent sales jump. Chrysler says it aims to break even, or make a small profit, in calendar 2010.

* Fiat returned to profit for the first time since 2008 with a 113million euros profit for the second quarter compared with a 179 million euros loss a year ago. The results were well ahead of market expectations, and the company says it has raised its target for full-year profits. Net revenues for the quarter rose 12.5 per cent on a year earlier, to 14.8 billion euros. Two years ago, revenues were 17 billion euros.

* Volkswagen reports sales rose 16 per cent in the first half following strong demand in China, up 45.7 per cent to 950,300 vehicles, and the US, up 29.2 per cent to 175,300. Volkswagen sold a total of 3.58 million cars during the period.

* BMW reports June quarter profit jumped from 121 million euros in 2009 to 834 million euros on sales up 18.3 per cent to 15.35 billion euros. BMW said improved economic conditions had allowed it to charge more for its cars, which had bolstered profits. The company has lifted 2010 sales and earnings forecasts.

* Rolls-Royce Motor Cars reports global sales rose nearly 200 per cent in the June half with production reaching its highest level since 2003. The BMW-owned company is currently running at 15 cars a day and all models are sold out until at least September. The company says “it is well on our way to meeting our target of at least doubling our 2009 sales."

* Tata Motors returned to profit in the June quarter with a 19.9 billion rupees result compared with a 3.3 billion loss previously. Revenue rose 64 per cent to 271 billion rupees on sales of 77,858 cars. Combined sales Jaguar and Land Rover rose to 57,153 units compared with 35,947 a year earlier.The company plans to raise 47 billion rupees to help cut debt and expand the business.

* Hyundai reports June quarter profit jumped 71 per cent, from 811.9 billion won to 1.39 trillion won, and says it expects to exceed its full-year business targets due to the launch of new models around the world and robust demand from emerging markets. Hyundai had set a sales target of 33.467 trillion won for 2010, up five per cent from the previous year's 31.859 trillion won. In the first half of the year, it achieved about 54 per cent of that target.

By Mike Woodgate 
Wednesday 11 August 2010 

America’s US$3 billion Cash for Clunkers program last year succeeded in generating some short-term economic stimulus and creating several thousand industry jobs, but the effective costs of emissions reduction was high, according to a new US study.

Prime Minister Gillard said the program would take close to 200,000 old cars off the road, which over the next decade would reduce CO2 emissions by 1 million tonnes and save motorists A$344 million in fuel costs.

The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries has welcomed the move but indicated that “the industry will need to work through the finer points”, while the federal Opposition claims the program costs will blow out to more than A$800 million.

The new study of the US cash for clunkers program highlights the difficulties of effectively managing such programs and the potentially high cost of this policy approach to carbon dioxide reduction.

The two main objectives of the US program were to stimulate the economy and aid the environment through a subsidy of between US$3,500 and US$4,500 for trade-ins of old cars for new fuel efficient vehicles. The size of the subsidy was dependent on the difference in fuel consumption between the new vehicle and the trade-in, which would then be scrapped.

The US program - officially titled the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act of 2009 - was originally intended to run between July 1 and November 1, 2009, but was closed in August 2009 due to strong take-up by consumers.

Originally estimated to cost US$1 billion, a total of US$2.85 billion was paid under the program for 677,842 purchase or lease transactions, according to Department of Transport figures.

The study by the RFF think tank found that although the Cash for Clunkers program generated some modest short term economic stimulus - around 390,000 in vehicle sales and 3,676 car industry jobs - the costs of reducing emissions were between US$91 to US$294 per ton of CO2.

The study also found  that Toyota, Honda and Nissan benefited disproportionally more from the program than other car makers.

The RFF study’s estimate of a sales increase of 390,000 vehicles during July and August was after allowing for the vehicles that would have been purchased without the program.

After looking at the draw-forward effect over a longer time period, the study found the increase in sales over June to December 2009 was only 246,000 vehicles after allowing for lower sales before and after the program.

The study by Shanjun Li and Joshua Linn of RFF and Elisheba Spiller, a PhD candidate from Duke University, found that the program resulted in a short run increase in industry employment of 3,676 job-years, roughly split between the assembly and the parts industry.

When taken over a longer period – from June 2009 to May 2010 – the study found that the effective employment boost was only 2,050 job-years. The study did not examine potential broader employment impacts outside the car industry.

Based on simulation results on vehicle sales, the study estimated that total reduction in fuel consumption ranged from 884 to 2916 million gallons and that reduction in CO2 emissions ranged from 8.58 to 28.28 million tons.

The study can be found at www.rff.org.

Several manufacturers now provide small black box recorders for cars and in June, US communications systems provider to law enforcement agencies, KCI Communications, unveiled its Smart Black Box.

The US$250 device sticks to a car’s windshield and uses a built-in camera, GPS unit and G-force shock sensor to document accidents. It saves to an SD card the 15 seconds before an impact and the five seconds afterward. The device records the time and location of an accident and documents speed and direction of travel.

KCI sales chief Chris Pflanz says: “It’s the cheapest, most reliable thing yet for recording the events leading up to and after an accident… we would eventually like to see insurance companies offer users of it a discount on their monthly premiums”. Pflanz adds: “What you record is yours. So, if you happen to be at fault in an accident, nobody else has to see it if you don’t want”. Provided one is 'compos mentis' after the accident.

The black box idea of a cockpit voice and data recorder was born when David Warren was probing -- “without any explanation, without any witnesses, without any survivors” -- mysterious Comet jet airliner crashes in the early 1950s.

The son of missionaries, Warren was born in 1925 at a remote mission station in far north-east Australia. When he was aged nine his father died in one of Australia’s earliest plane disasters. He was among 12 people on board the "Miss Hobart" mail plane which vanished over Bass Strait in 1934.

Warren became Principal Research Scientist at the Defence Science and Technology Organisation’s Aeronautical Research Laboratories in Melbourne. He also had an interest in antique automobiles and was the founding chairman of the Morris Minor Car Club of Victoria.

Despite a lack of interest from authorities, Warren built his prototype aircraft black box in 1956 which stored four hours of voice recordings and instrument readings. But the Department of Civil Aviation said at the time the "instrument has little immediate direct use in civil aviation". The Royal Australian Air Force said it was unnecessary and likely to "yield more expletives than explanations".

The New York Times notes: “The story of Warren’s invention is not an entirely happy one. First, his idea was derided. If it were practical, he was repeatedly told, the Americans would have already made it. Then the Australian civilian aviation authorities said it had ‘no immediate significance’. The military huffed that it would yield ‘more expletives than explanations’. The pilots’ union called the device a sinister way to spy on them.

“The invention’s salvation was a visit by a high-ranking British aviation official to Australia. He marveled at Warren’s brainchild and flew the inventor to England to show it off. The flight was the only remuneration Warren received for building the box.

“How Warren’s red box came to be called a black box is not altogether clear. At the time, black box was a slang term in the Royal Air Force for a navigational instrument in an airplane. One story has it that a person who witnessed a demonstration said something like, ‘What a wonderful black box!’ In any event, within two years the English were putting the device into their planes. An American company produced its own version. More and more governments began mandating the boxes’.

The Washington Post says: “Today, black boxes -- which are actually painted bright orange or red -- are required on all airlines around the world and are built to withstand fire, heavy impact and intense water pressure. They have helped investigators examine many crashes and have led to immense improvements in airplane safety and pilot training. In recent years, the technology has been applied to boats, trucks and, increasingly, automobiles”.

Recognising David Warren’s achievement, the Department of Defence said in a media release: “It took five years before the value and practicality of the flight data recorder concept was realised and a further five years until authorities mandated they be fitted to cockpits in Australian aircraft. The modern-day equivalent of Dr Warren’s device, installed in passenger airlines around the world is a testament to his pioneering work. It is now also used in other forms of road transport to capture information in the lead-up to accidents.

“Dr Warren’s flight data recorder has made an invaluable contribution to safety in world aviation. In November 2008, Qantas announced that they had named an Airbus A380 aircraft after Dr Warren in honour of his contribution to aviation. Dr Warren was one of only two aviation pioneers who were there to see the unveiling of the names that would grace the new fleet. His name will join such aviation luminaries as Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Nancy-Bird Walton in adorning one of 20 new planes.

“Among many awards during his career, Dr Warren and his team also received the Lawrence Hargraves award in 2001 for their work on the Black Box flight recorder. He was appointed an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia in 2002 for service to the aviation industry. Dr Warren simultaneously served as chairman of the Combustion Institute (Australian and New Zealand Section) for 25 years (1958 – 1983) and Scientific Energy Adviser to the Victorian Parliament (1981 – 1982)”.