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2016-07-10

Boeing’s century of innovation

Boeing celebrates its first century of innovation with a series of events and activities

The Boeing Company, the world’s largest aerospace company, is celebrating a century of its innovative work in transforming how we fly over oceans and into the stars.

Starting with the production of a single canvas-and-wood airplane on July 15, 1916, the company has grown from strength to strength remaining committed to its founder Bill Boeing’s philosophy - “build something better.”

As part of its Centennial Year celebrations, Boeing is underwriting a global tour of the Above & Beyond, an exhibition exploring the wonder of flight and the marvels of aerospace innovation, design, and technology that is fun for all ages, but aimed educationally at 7 – 14 year olds.

Above and Beyond is produced by Evergreen Exhibitions in association with Boeing and in collaboration with NASA and the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum as an investment in inspiring the next generation of aerospace visionaries.

The exhibit has already toured Dubai and Abu Dhabi and will be visiting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia next year.

As the Centennial celebrations continue, the Boeing Company can reflect on its relationship with the Middle East, which goes back more than 70 years.

In 1945, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt presented a DC-3 Dakota to His Excellency King Abdulaziz Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia.

Throughout this time, the Boeing Defense, Space & Security business provided military aircraft, network and space systems to customers around the Middle East.

Boeing’s first office was established in 1982, when Boeing Middle East Limited (BMEL) was established in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Since then, Boeing has expanded its relationships across the region, with a key focus on Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait. In addition to offices in Riyadh, Boeing opened new regional offices in Abu Dhabi, UAE, in 1999 and in Doha, Qatar, in 2011.

Today, Boeing Defense, Space & Security offers a portfolio of products, systems, services and solutions to its Middle East customers, partners and suppliers, including products from Boeing Military Aircraft, Network & Space Systems and Global Services & Support.

Among products provided by Boeing Defense, Space & Security to customers in the region are C-17 Globemaster III, Apache, Chinook; F/A-18, Advanced F-15 fighter jets, Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS), tanker aircraft; and Boeing 376, 601 and 702 satellites operated by Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications.

Deepening partnerships in the Middle East

Boeing Defense, Space & Security continues to partner and pursue opportunities with a number of entities in the Middle East to help craft the future of aerospace in the region and remains committed to strengthening these industrial partnerships while exploring new opportunities.

One example is an agreement between Boeing Defense Space & Security and Abu Dhabi-based Advanced Military Maintenance Repair and Overhaul Center (AMMROC), signed in 2011 to ensure that the right support infrastructure is in place for operational readiness of UAE armed forces aircraft, including Boeing-built Apache and Chinook rotorcraft and C-17 transport aircraft.

Boeing also entered into a strategic framework agreement with the Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Development Company in 2009. Under this agreement, Boeing and Mubadala intend to develop mutually beneficial initiatives in areas where there is strategic alignment between the two companies, including composite manufacturing; engineering, research and technology; commercial maintenance, repair and overhaul; military maintenance and sustainment; pilot training; and people development.

At the 2013 Dubai Airshow, Boeing signed a partnership with Tawazun Precision Industries (TPI), an EDIC subsidiary, to establish a new aerospace surface treatment facility in Abu Dhabi. The certified, state-of-the-art facility will enable TPI to produce complex metallic assemblies for Boeing, its suppliers and other aerospace manufacturers worldwide. It is scheduled to open in 2016.

Boeing has also worked with the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Etihad Airways and Honeywell’s UOP to establish the Sustainable Bioenergy Research Consortium (SBRC).

Recently, Boeing and its research partners made breakthroughs in sustainable aviation biofuel development, finding that desert plants fed by seawater will produce biofuel more efficiently than other well-known feedstock. The SBRC will test these findings in a project that could support biofuel crop production in arid countries, such as the UAE.

In February 2014, Boeing and Saudi Arabian Airlines Holding Co. signed a broad collaboration agreement to explore areas of cooperation in pilot and aircraft maintenance training, rotorcraft support, management and leadership training, and manufacturing focused on the expansion of local presence and aerospace skill development in the country.

In September 2014, Boeing Research & Technology opened an office at KAUST to enable Boeing’s increased interaction with professors and resident companies interested in joint collaboration and research and development. KAUST is a strategic partner to Boeing. Boeing’s partnership with KAUST is a key tool for research within the Kingdom and a step in partnering with other Saudi organisations to develop research and technology infrastructure and capabilities.

In September 2014, Boeing and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology launched the Decision Support Center in Riyadh. The center serves as a key tool for collaboration and experimentation between customers and partners in the Kingdom, giving users the ability to make more informed modernization and interoperability decisions for aerospace and defense products. The facility uses local Saudi capabilities and is staffed primarily by Saudi nationals.

In August 2015, Boeing signed an agreement with Saudia Aerospace Engineering Industries (SAEI) and Alsalam Aircraft Company to create the Saudi Rotorcraft Support Company (SRSC) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The joint venture will have locations in Riyadh and Jeddah providing comprehensive, in-country maintenance repair and overhaul support for Saudi Arabia’s diverse rotorcraft fleet.

The joint venture will support the Kingdom’s commercial and defense rotorcraft platforms, including the AH-64 Apache, H-47 Chinook and AH-6i.

Getting into space

A key area for growth is Boeing Space Exploration, headquartered in Houston, which is a leading provider of human spaceflight and space exploration systems and services.

Since the dawn of the Space Age, Boeing has designed, developed, built and operated human and robotic space vehicles as well as supporting hardware.

The Boeing legacy began with the X-15 hypersonic aircraft, spanned the Gemini, Mercury, Apollo, Skylab and Shuttle programs, and continues with today’s Space Launch System, International Space Station and Commercial Crew programmes.

Space Exploration, a division within Boeing Defense, Space & Security’s Network & Space Systems business, employs approximately 2,000 people in Alabama, California, Florida, Louisiana and Texas.

Boeing’s Space Exploration division collaborates with NASA and its international partners to optimise the potential of the International Space Station as a groundbreaking scientific research facility for the benefit of all mankind.

Boeing employees are now developing a commercial crew transportation system to provide American access for people going to-and-from the space station and other orbital destinations of the future.

And, as NASA develops its scenario for future exploration beyond Earth’s orbit, Boeing is leveraging its 50 years of experience in human spaceflight to support NASA’s requirements with innovative technologies and strategies for exploration beyond Earth’s orbit, with the Space Launch System.

Boeing is the prime contractor for the development of the core stages and avionics for this program to help ensure continued US leadership in human spaceflight programmes.

NASA selected Boeing to design, develop and produce the nation’s next -generation, human-rated rocket to transport people beyond Earth’s orbit, enabling the next step in human space exploration.

Boeing’s Space Launch System programme in Huntsville, Ala., is responsible for the cryogenic stages and avionics.

NASA announced its acquisition strategy in late 2011, including the intent to modify existing contracts and award the prime contract for first- and upper-stage development and avionics to Boeing. Since then, NASA and Boeing have signed a $2.8 billion contract for the work.

Additionally, Boeing is the prime contractor for the International Space Station (ISS)

Boeing designed and built all of the major US elements of the ISS and integrated the systems, procedures and components of 15 participating countries in this international enterprise. With ISS construction completed in 2011, Boeing now assists with operations of the orbital facility in low-Earth orbit. Today, continuing in its role as prime contractor, Boeing supports the sustaining engineering and enhanced utilisation for NASA’s ISS programme and leads several modification and update projects.

The 2009 winner of the distinguished Collier Trophy, the ISS is the largest, most complex international scientific and engineering space venture in history. The ISS is larger than the size of a US football field and weighs in at more than 900,000 lbs, the equivalent of more than 320 automobiles. It has an internal pressurized volume of 33,023 cubic feet, equivalent to a Boeing 747 jumbo jet.

A 2005 NASA Authorization Bill established the U.S. segment of the ISS as a National Laboratory, directly supporting the US Space Exploration Policy, with human life sciences experiments taking highest priority.

The ISS also provides a test bed for new technologies and an analog for long duration human space flight operations. Other research includes biology and biotechnology; physical and materials sciences; and Earth and space sciences. In January 2014, ISS operations were extended to 2024.

NASA’s Commercial Crew Programme is an innovative partnership to help the aerospace industry in the United States develop space transportation systems that can safely launch humans to low-Earth orbit destinations such as the International Space Station (ISS) and the Bigelow planned station.

The Boeing Commercial Crew Programme (CCP) is responsible for the development of the fully integrated Commercial Crew Transportation System, comprised of the Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 spacecraft, launch system, mission operations and ground systems.

On September 16, 2014, Boeing was awarded $4.2 billion by NASA to build the CST-100 transportation system, America’s next spacecraft.

The CST-100 is a reusable spacecraft, featuring a weldless structure as well as wireless internet and tablet technology. The capsule was developed with proven materials and subsystem technologies and will transport up to seven people, or a combination of crew and cargo. The CST-100 was designed at the Houston Product Support Center and will be manufactured at the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility (C3PF), formerly the Orbiter Processing Facility-3 (OPF3), at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Boeing is currently manufacturing three CST-100 structural test articles at the C3PF. The first un-crewed flight as well as the first crewed flight to the ISS will take place in 2017.

MENA has been - and continues to be - a very important marketfor Boeing

The UAE Space Agency was established in 2014 and directs national space programs that will have direct benefits to the country’s economy and human capital. It creates space policy and regulation, as well as supporting the development of engineers and scientists.

The Space Agency gained membership of the International Space Exploration Coordination Group, making the UAE the first Arab country to join.

The UAE Space Agency and Boeing collaborated with UAE’s The National newspaper to launch initiative space outreach program. The National Space Programme features different competitions.

The first is Genes in Space, which will see students in 7-12th grades from across the UAE compete for the opportunity to have their experiments launched into space and conducted by scientists on board the International Space Station.

The goal of Genes in Space is to foster creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking among young innovators bridging the biological and physical sciences.

Aviation leaders, biotech innovators, space explorers, and STEM enthusiasts have joined hands to create this challenge.

Boeing’s Space Exploration also has a range of services that it supports NASA with, giving it the perfect experience to support the UAE’s space programme.

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