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Boeing’s purchase of North Charleston plant complete
By Scott Miller
Staff Writer
The marriage between Vought Aircraft Industries and Global Aeronautica is over, but the two companies remain neighbors and seem inevitably connected by their customer, Boeing Co.
Boeing completed its purchase of Vought’s share in Global Aeronautica this month. Both companies work on fuselage sections for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which has been delayed amid numerous supplier problems.
“(The purchase) was not performance related,” said Bob Noble, Boeing vice president for supplier management, speaking to reporters during an organized media event at the two facilities earlier this month.
Global Aeronautica CEO Mario Capitelli said the problems in the 787 program were expected because it was a new product with a new development process.
“I wouldn’t say Boeing had to come in and take it over,” Capitelli said. “It’s basically a new design that had to be dealt with.”
Boeing will bring its expertise to Global Aeronautica and management changes at the North Charleston facility could be coming. Noble wouldn’t discuss specifics, saying “We’ll just let it play out.” But he did note that change is just part of the aviation industry.
In March, Vought announced its intent to sell its stake in Global Aeronautica to Boeing so it could refocus efforts on fixing supply chain problems at its North Charleston plant.
Vought has corrected those issues, however, and is now delivering a product “that I think we can be very proud of,” said Joy Romero, vice president of the 787 program for Vought.
Global Aeronautica, meanwhile, will become a joint venture between Boeing and Alenia North America, which partnered with Vought to develop the site in 2004.
Last week, the European Commission approved Vought’s sale to Boeing. The European Commission evaluated the acquisition because Alenia North America is a subsidiary of Italy’s Alenia Aeronautica.
Financial details of the sale were not released.
Boeing will help improve efficiencies at Global Aeronautica, Noble said, but did not point fingers at Vought and credited the company with the “amazing” task of developing the site.
The media event attracted reporters from around the country, and at times, conversations with aviation-industry reporters grew contentious as Noble and Global Aeronautica representatives described the partnership with Vought as a success.
Vincenzo Caiazzo, COO of Alenia North America and chairman of Global Aeronautica, emphasized Vought’s role in developing.
“Nothing was here,” he said. “I think this is the perfect example of using global thinking to succeed in our industry.”
To date, Global Aeronautica has shipped five fuselage sections to Boeing, which does not
discuss future delivery schedules other than to say their production is in line with Boeing’s master schedule for the 787 program.
Scott Miller is a staff writer at the Business Journal. E-mail him at smiller@scbiznews.com.
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