Boeing partnership continues to enhance aerospace research skills in UK
Boeing [NYSE: BA] today said that its partnership with the United Kingdom continues to be strong, with a shared commitment to research and a highly skilled workforce producing solid results in the British aerospace industry.
“Boeing’s current market outlook projects a global need for 35,000 new commercial aircraft valued at $4.8 trillion over the next 20 years,” said Sir Roger Bone, president of Boeing in the UK, at the Aerospace Growth Partnership Technology Showcase in London. “The projected growth in aerospace offers enormous opportunities to sustain and grow our long tradition of partnership with the UK aerospace manufacturing sector in the years ahead. We share the same priorities to invest in next-generation aircraft technologies and in the people we will need to deliver them.”
Boeing also presented research findings by Oxford Economics, which found that the company supports 9,200 indirect jobs in the supply chain in the UK and more than 55,700 jobs in the UK.
With an extensive network of industrial and academic partners and suppliers across the UK, Boeing is delivering industrial participation benefits to UK defence and defence-related companies. On a 787 with Rolls-Royce engines, UK companies comprise 25 percent of the 787 by value. In December 2013, UK supplier GKN was chosen to supply Advanced Technology winglets to the 737 MAX program. Boeing currently partners with seven UK universities for research, including QinetiQ in Farnborough, which performs wind tunnel testing for the 777X.
“Today the UK is number two in the world in aerospace, behind only the United States, with a 17 percent market share,” Bone said. “To retain that position into the future, focused investment is needed today. The government and industry support for the Aerospace Growth Partnership on show at this conference is a positive sign for the long-term success of the UK aerospace industry.”
Boeing employs 1,500 people across the UK at numerous sites, from Glasgow to Gosport, and the company is experiencing solid organic growth. In 2013 Boeing celebrated 75 years of partnership with the United Kingdom, the Armed Forces, British manufacturing and the air transport industry. Today the UK remains a critically important market, supplier base and a source of some of the world’s most inventive technology partners. Boeing’s expenditure with the UK aerospace industry averages $1 billion per year, and the company’s activities worldwide support more than 55,000 UK jobs while enhancing skills, facilitating exports and generating intellectual property.
Contact:
Matt Knowles
International Corporate Communications
Office: +44 20 7340 1931
matt.knowles@boeing.com
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