Boeing partners with Japanese companies on Sonic Cruiser

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Posted 8:35AM on Wednesday, January 30, 2002

SEATTLE - Boeing Co. says it will partner with Japanese companies to research and develop materials for building its planned high-speed Sonic Cruiser passenger jet. The agreement marks the first time an outside partner has been brought into Boeing's commercial airplane development this early in the process, company spokeswoman Lori Gunter said Tuesday. Boeing partnered with Japanese companies on design work for the 767, for example, but only after 25 percent of the engineering was completed. Under the agreement reached last week, the Chicago-based aerospace company will partner on composites research with Japan Aircraft Development Corp. and Japan Aircraft Industries, which includes Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Fuji Heavy Industries. Each company will fund its own research, Gunter said. If Boeing decides to use the Japanese firms' designs, the companies will negotiate financial terms. Gunter said the company decided to work with outside developers earlier in the process because the Sonic Cruiser is so drastically different from Boeing's existing commercial jets. The delta-winged plane, still years away from completion, is expected to fly higher and at nearly the speed of sound. "When you look at the Sonic Cruiser compared with airplanes done in last 50 years, since the 707, this is the first really different class of flying machine," she said. "We're making a really fundamental change and so the research and development effort is significant." Boeing abandoned plans to build a supersonic airplane in 1971 after the government canceled funding for the project. Gunter said to expect more such deals on Sonic Cruiser development in the future. But she cautioned that a decision had not yet been made on whether to send production work to outside companies as well. "This isn't about the placement of work," she said. "We're nowhere near ready to do that." Gunter said the plans would not affect the number of engineers currently assigned to the Sonic Cruiser project, since the company had always planned to send some work to outside companies. Bill Dugovich, spokesman for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, the union for engineers and technical workers at Boeing, said the union expected such a deal. Previous deals to contract some Boeing work to Japan have been beneficial, he said, because Japanese airlines are important customers. "Japan is an extremely good customer for Boeing aircraft, and we can see the result of some of this type of work going over there," he said. "We see the results in sales." But Dugovich said the union was monitoring work sent to outside companies since Boeing is laying off as many as 30,000 commercial airplanes workers because of a downturn in work since Sept. 11. "We are keeping a watchful eye on the amount of work that is going overseas, particularly in the wake of the layoff announcements in the United States," he said.