Boeing Shopping In South Carolina?
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By Michael Mecham
Officials at Boeing Commercial Airplanes and Vought Aircraft Industries are not commenting on reports that Boeing is in negotiations with the Dallas-based Vought to buy out its Advanced Aero Solutions unit in South Carolina, which makes 787 aft fuselage assemblies.
A Boeing official said the company does not comment on possible mergers and acquisitions and a Vought official responded similarly about possible sales.
During the Paris Air Show, Boeing Chairman and CEO James McNerney said the company was “actively looking” at establishing a second production line for the 787, but he left open the question of timing and location.
However, in its June 22 issue, Aviation Week & Space Technology reported that the North Carolina site occupied by Vought and Alenia Aeronautica leads the list of possible locations for that line. The location has a number of advantages – lower wage scales than the Seattle, Wash., area, strong state support in the form of tax breaks and worker training support, and space available for additional manufacturing facilities.
It also plays a key role as a logistics hub for the 787’s DreamLifter subassembly global transportation system so integration of assemblies produced across the world would not present a problem.
With revenues of $1.8 billion, Vought is a major supplier to multiple military and civil aircraft programs. It has been a major supplier to Boeing’s civil programs from early days of the 737 and was willing to tailor-build a factory in North Charleston to win a place on the 787 program.
Currently, it is also plays a key major supplier role in Boeing’s other key development program, the 747-8. It builds center fuselage assemblies at its Hawthorne, Calif., facility for the new airplane, which is expected to achieve first flight in the fourth quarter.
Like others involved in Boeing’s intensive 787 production process, Vought struggled to complete the aft fuselage assemblies on schedule.
Investment demands elsewhere in the business prompted it to rethink its investment strategy last year. As part of its deep dive into the 787, it joined Alenia Aeronautica in a 50/50 partnership to build an adjacent plant in North Charleston called Global Aeronautica. GA integrates center and aft fuselage sections for shipment to Boeing’s final assembly line in Everett, Wash.
Boeing ended up buying out Vought and going into business with Alenia in Global Aeronautica. The effect amounted to a pullback by Boeing of its initial drive to off-load much of its investment risk in assembly work for the new long-range jet.
Buying out Vought would mean a second big step along a path of pulling more work back under its own manufacturing umbrella. Except the work will not be done in its hometown factories around Seattle.
Photo: Boeing
