UAE- Boeing flies high with Strata

9/17/2015 8:28:48 AM

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times)American aviation giant Boeing expects its relationship with Strata Manufacturing - Mubadala Aerospace's advanced composite aerostructures facility in Al Ain - to expand in the future a senior Boeing official said on Monday.

Strata currently manufactures vertical and horizontal stabiliser ribs for Boeing 777s as well as vertical stabiliser ribs for 787 Dreamliners.

Speaking to a group of journalists visiting from the Gulf region John Byrne vice-president of airplane materials and structures said that Boeing has so far been pleased with its relationship with Strata with whom a 10-year contract was announced in 2012.

"I'm really proud of where we are at right now with Mubadala and Strata and the whole story is not told yet" he said. "There will be some more.good things come out at the airshow in Dubai that we have been working on."

"We have come a long way and are doing some things that probably a lot of people didn't think could be done" he added. "I couldn't be more pleased with the progress we've made."

Byrne also noted that Boeing and Strata are constantly evaluating whether to enhance cooperation.

"We built a road map together. That road map says we have to have certain competencies and certain capabilities and if we get those then we can take the next step" he said. "That's what we were doing last week in our executive steering group. We were evaluating where we were on a couple of key milestones and making a determination whether or not we would go take the next step."

"In one of the projects we were working on we not only took the next step but we advanced it really fast" Byrne added. "In another project we both agreed we didn't have the right solutions in place so we sent the teams back to do more work. That's a good thing. It means both of us are looking at common objectives and figuring out how to be successful together."

Additionally Byrne noted that Strata is capable of building larger composite aircraft components for Boeing in the future.

"We're talking about some larger parts" he said. "They have the capability. Once you build the fundamentals you start to set in play the capability to scale up. The real question becomes 'is that the right thing to do?' Obviously the bigger you get it requires more capital intensive investment.you have to have that conversation. That's what we're going through right now."

Bernd Debusmann Jr. Originally from Mexico City I've been in Dubai since January 2015. Before arriving in in the UAE I worked as a general news reporter in TV and print in Mexico City NYC and Washington DC. I'm interested in defence issues politics technology aviation and history. In my spare time i enjoy traveling and football - I'm a keen fan of Chelsea FC. I developed an interest in the Middle East traveling through Jordan and the West Bank. I have a BA in Political Science from Dickinson College in the USA and an MA in International Journalism from City University London.

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