MARYSVILLE – In Europe, Airbus says the future of aerospace lies in superjumbo jets flying between major cities.
Here in the United States, the Boeing Co. argues that what airlines need are fleets of smaller, long-range jets that can connect more cities.
At Northwest Composites, the debate is largely academic. The Marysville company is supplying interior components for both the Airbus A380 and the Boeing 787. It’s also building parts for the two major regional jet builders, Bombardier of Canada and Embraer of Brazil.
The company has worked hard to diversify, and it’s paying off, said Jerry Goodwin, Northwest’s vice president and general manager.
“It’s a world economy now,” he said. “Things can be produced anywhere in the world.”
The new Airbus A380, the largest commercial jet ever built, is expected to take its first flight in France this week. When it lifts off, it will carry aloft three sets of stairs built by Northwest Composites.
One of the first things passengers boarding the A380 will see is the 52-inch-wide grand staircase running up to the top deck.
The effect will be “kind of like a cruise ship,” Goodwin said.
Northwest Composites’ contract included supplying the sidewalls that surround the staircases, too. Those sections, made of the fiberglasslike composites that are the company’s specialty, are probably the largest single component ever built in the Marysville plant, said Derick Basia, who manages Airbus programs for the company.
“They span two decks of the aircraft, and you don’t have that opportunity very often,” he said.
The stairs were, pardon the pun, omething of a crash program for the company.
Airbus “had a supplier that was basically failing,” Goodwin said. “We had to step in, start from scratch and make things happen very, very, very quickly.”
Northwest Composites designed, tested, certified and delivered the first stairs to the Airbus factory in Toulouse, France, in 10 months. Normal lead time on a project like that is 16 to 20 months, Goodwin said.
“We rose up to the challenge and made it happen,” he said. “We made a mark with Airbus with this.”
The first flight of Boeing’s 787 won’t be until 2007, but Northwest Composites is already working on its share of the airplane. “We have our engineers sitting next to the Boeing engineers,” Goodwin said.
The company announced earlier this month that it had won a $400 million contract to supply parts for the interiors of Boeing’s new Dreamliner, including the window reveals that will hold the plane’s much-talked-about supersized windows.
The contract also includes “pretty much all of the linings” for the plane, Goodwin said, including the linings for the cargo hold and doors.
The 787 contract was a big win for Northwest Composites. The $400 million value equals the 2004 revenues recorded by C&D Aerospace, Northwest’s former parent company.
“It’s going to create a lot of opportunity here,” Goodwin said. Depending on how many 787s Boeing builds each month, the contract will result in work for between 150 and 300 employees, he said. The company now has about 500 workers.
Northwest Composites also has been busy working with Boeing and its 787 partners Vought Aircraft Industries and Kawasaki Heavy Industries to create test parts made from the composite materials that will make up about half of the new airplane by weight.
“All kinds of different parts that used to be aluminum are now graphite,” Goodwin said. “This stuff is really cutting edge” – and that’s important to keeping the company in the forefront of the composites industry.
The Airbus and Boeing contracts have helped the company turn around from the industrywide slump that followed the 2001 terror attacks, Goodwin said.
“We’re excited in that they create some good long-term opportunities,” he said. “We’ve kind of come out of the clouds.”
Reporter Bryan Corliss: 425-339-3454 or corliss@heraldnet.com.
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