Curtiss-Wright 2010 Business Overview

Dear Shareholders:

2010 served as a year of transition for Curtiss-Wright. As a company that was founded on innovation, advanced technologies and high-performance engineering, we were faced with the daunting task of overcoming one of the most challenging economic periods in history.

With a management team intensely focused on driving execution and controlling costs, we ended 2010 with strong profitability and a solid base upon which we can continue to grow our business. We also continued to build our company through acquisitions, strategic investments, facility expansions and consolidations, all of which, we believe, strengthened our overall competitiveness. It is our continued drive that enabled us to weather the downturn, and we have emerged a stronger company.

We are truly a global company, with international sales now representing 30% of our total business, and our diversification remains a key component of our long-term success. When combined with our focus on innovation and advanced technologies, the expansion of our global footprint and our continuous leadership and management development initiatives, it is clear why we believe we are uniquely positioned for growth.

2010 Performance

We concluded 2010 with strong profitability across our segments, as our profit once again grew faster than sales. Net sales of $1.89 billion represented a 5% increase from the prior year, primarily driven by a solid rebound in our commercial markets, which are more sensitive to economic conditions. Our sales were led by strong gains in our general industrial, naval and aerospace defense and commercial aerospace markets, all of which produced double-digit increases over the prior year. Despite the increased demand, we did encounter a few challenges, including large defense program cancellations that negatively impacted our defense businesses and the continued slowness in the oil and gas market.

Improving operating efficiency is a continual priority at Curtiss-Wright. We succeeded in growing our operating margin slightly to 9.5% with strong contributions from each of our three segments, despite the significant impact that foreign exchange had on our operating results. Although our margins are not yet back to our peak levels from a few years ago, our ongoing cost reduction and restructuring initiatives, many of which began in 2009, have led to a leaner, more efficient company, and we intend to continue to take strides to improve our profitability going forward.

Net earnings of $107 million, or $2.30 per fully diluted share, reflect a 12% increase from the prior year. We also generated significant free cash flow of $119 million.

We finished the year with a solid backlog of nearly $1.7 billion, driven by an 11% increase in new orders, setting the stage for future sales and allowing us to stay on the path towards continuous, long-term growth.

Focus on our Technology, Facilities and Talent Development

There is always the temptation in difficult economic times to reduce spending on innovation, capacity and people, a course of action that all too frequently can leave a company unprepared to participate effectively when conditions improve. Our strong financial position and the efficiency of our product-development programs enabled us to preserve our tradition of innovation despite the tough economy.

The heart of our technological innovation is knowing what our customers want today and will require tomorrow, an understanding grounded in our history of long-standing relationships with our global customers. We have a long and successful history of putting together in timely fashion the right components for future success through new development, acquisition or partnership.