Boeing’s Advanced Developmental Composites Center is located on East Marginal Way South in Tukwila, Washington (Photo by Flynn Companies)
Boeing says it will repurpose the Seattle-area facilities that have served as a focus of research on composite materials used in aircraft ranging from the B-2 Stealth bomber to the 787 Dreamliner.
In an emailed statement, Boeing said that much of the work being done at the Advanced Developmental Composites Center, located across the street from the Seattle Museum of Flight, will be distributed to other Boeing facilities, primarily in the Puget Sound region. Other work, unrelated to Boeing Commercial Airplanes, will continue to be performed on the 600,000 square foot facility.
Boeing proposed the measure as a cost saving and efficiency improvement measure.
“We continue to take comprehensive measures throughout the company to adapt to our new market reality and transform our business to be more agile and sustainable for the future,” the company said in its statement. “This is one of several steps we are taking to optimize our operations and make more efficient use of our facility space. Boeing continues to invest in the development of advanced composites for future products, and in the future this will take place at other local Boeing facilities.
The change in operations was first reported in The Seattle Times.
A decade ago, the Times reported that Boeing was putting 900 employees to work at the center to boost the company’s composite production capabilities for the 787 Dreamliner. Since then, however, composite materials have become widespread. Composites account for 50% of the Dreamliner’s weight, and in 2016, Boeing pushed the frontier even further with a billion-dollar composite wing installation for the 777X at its Everett, Washington, factory.
The Times quoted a spokesman for the Society of Professional Aerospace Engineering Employees, Bill Dugovich, as saying that 29 union members currently work at the center and that the union was seeking more information about the fate of the center. Boeing’s word is that the transition is expected to unfold in the course of 2021, and that the potential impact on employment has already been factored into the company’s outlook for the year.
Boeing has had to reduce its R&D ambitions on other fronts as well, due to the financial impacts of the 737 MAX crisis and the coronavirus pandemic. Last June, Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems dialed in their engineering support for Aerion Supersonic’s commercial jet, and last September, Boeing said it was putting its air mobility initiative on hold.
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