Open for business

Aerospace Manufacturing's Mike Richardson discovers that with the arrival of Boeing's North Charleston assembly and delivery facility, South Carolina is fast emerging as a global centre for aerospace manufacturing and research and development.
The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner plant has put Charleston, South Carolina firmly on the aerospace industry map as the new international hub for the aerospace industry. Charleston is now one of only three places in the world assembling and delivering wide body commercial jets.

The Boeing plant has created 4,000 direct jobs for the region and approximately 11,000 indirect jobs for ancillary industries. Charleston's vast employment base has already attracted international aerospace companies such as Eaton Corporation, Parker Hannifin, SKF and GE Aviation to locate in the region. Indeed, Charleston is one of the fastest growing mid-size metros for aircraft manufacturing in the US.

In addition to Boeing's facilities, South Carolina is home to 200 aerospace-related companies whilst in the Charleston area there are about 70 companies.

Up and running

The first Boeing 787 Dreamliner assembled in South Carolina rolled off the final assembly line in April, marking the first time a Boeing commercial aircraft has been built outside of Washington state since World War II. Delivery of the aircraft to Air India is imminent.

Boeing announced its selection of North Charleston as the location for the second 787 production and final assembly line in October 2009 and broke ground on the site in November that year. The facility was completed in June 2011 with production beginning later that same month.

Boeing South Carolina is responsible for fabrication, integration and assembly of the 787's midbody and aftbody fuselage sections. Once complete, the fuselage sections either move into the final assembly facility also located on the North Charleston campus, or are transported via the Dreamlifter to final assembly in Everett, Washington.

“Charleston, South Carolina is certainly open for business,” begins Charleston Regional Development Alliance's vice-president of global business development, Hank Taylor. “Successful companies tell us that South Carolina provides a great business environment, so we take very seriously the idea that we are a good place to do business and spend a lot of time and effort maintaining this position. These same companies also tell us that a trained and available workforce is another attractive reason why Charleston, South Carolina is a good place to do business.”

Aerospace companies also attribute success in South Carolina to the state's internationally recognised pre-employment training programme, ReadySC, a comprehensive and customised training programme that supplies a skilled workforce at no cost to the company. In addition, Charleston's local technical college's Aeronautical Studies division routinely collaborates with companies to instruct students in the fields of aircraft maintenance, composites and aircraft manufacturing.

“South Carolina contains what I would describe as ‘centres of excellence' within each of our major universities,” Taylor continues. “For example, Clemson University has an advanced materials centre containing some of the highest regarded people in this field, while the University of South Carolina specialises in nanotechnology. We are helping to create the skills and knowledge necessary to allow the aerospace industry to get to the next level.”

Train to gain

New people entering the state can access technical colleges close to Boeing with specialised aerospace training facilities designed to give them hands-on experience to perform the technical capabilities that are vital to the aerospace sector.

“In addition to supporting the training programmes within our colleges and universities, our BuySC supplier locator programme allows us to match technical requirements with the skills already available in South Carolina,” he explains. “We have a catalogue of companies and businesses in the region that produce certain goods and services.”

Taylor ends by saying that the Boeing plant's impact on South Carolina permeates right down through to the region's high school level.

“We've implemented an aerospace academy that allows children to start developing an interest in aerospace at an early age,” he concludes. “Our long-term approach involves developing a workforce of the best and brightest technological minds and our centres of excellence will provide the catalyst to allow aerospace manufacturing to not only take root, but to flourish in Charleston.”

www.AerospaceInCharleston.com