Boeing shuttering Wichita plant, sending tanker work here
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January 05, 2012
By Dominic Gates, aerospace reporter
Seattle Times
1/4/2012
Boeing confirmed Wednesday that it will close its defense plant in Wichita, Kan., by the end of 2013. The news, a body blow to aviation manufacturing in Kansas that had been rumored for weeks, was delivered directly to employees at an all-hands meeting.
The U.S. Air Force refueling tanker work that Boeing promised to Wichita during the intense competition for that contract will instead be done in its Puget Sound factories, the company said in a statement.
Winning the tanker contract a year ago was seen in Kansas as preserving Boeing Wichita’s future. But the company has decided instead to install the military systems on the tankers near the assembly line where the airframes will be built in Everett.
It’s unclear if that work will be done in Everett or Seattle, and Boeing has not said how many Puget Sound employees it may add as a result.
About 2,100 Wichita employees will lose their jobs, beginning “early in the third quarter of 2012,” the company said.
Boeing blamed the closure on the maturing of government defense contracts and the winding down of programs.
“The site does not have enough sustainable business on the horizon to create an affordable cost structure to maintain and win new business,” its statement said.
“In this time of defense budget reductions, as well as shifting customer priorities, Boeing has decided to close its operations in Wichita to reduce costs, increase efficiencies, and drive competitiveness,” said Mark Bass, vice president of the Boeing defense division’s Maintenance, Modifications & Upgrades division. “We will begin program transitions in the coming months, with the complete closure of the site scheduled for the end of 2013.”
Aside from the tanker contract, other Wichita defense work will move from Kansas to Texas and Oklahoma.
Wichita currently maintains and modifies a fleet of government jets, including Air Force One and smaller jets used by the top military brass. It also maintains and constantly upgrades the country’s aging fleet of B-52 bombers.
Future aircraft maintenance, modification and support work will be placed at the Boeing facility in San Antonio. Engineering work will be placed at the Boeing facility in Oklahoma City.
Seven years ago, Boeing sold off its major commercial airplanes parts plant in Wichita. The closure of the defense plant will end its operations in the city, where Boeing has been present since it bought Stearman Aircraft in 1929.
Wichita will continue to be important to Boeing. The former commercial airplanes parts plant — now owned by Spirit AeroSystems — makes the fuselages for the 737, the nose-and-cockpit sections of all Boeing’s jets including the 787 Dreamliner, and the engine casings and struts for all the jets except the Dreamliner.
Boeing said 24 Kansas companies will still be suppliers on the Air Force tanker program.
Yet Boeing’s statement Wednesday that it “values its long-term partnership with Kansas, and we will continue to work … in support of a robust aerospace industry in the state” will be no comfort to its employees as it prepares to exit the city that still calls itself the “Air Capital of the World.”
