Boeing has established its own organization to develop and produce avionics and other electronics, the manufacturer said on July 31. Plans call for delivering products in the next decade, positioning Boeing to compete against avionics suppliers such as Honeywell, Rockwell Collins and GE Aviation.
In an internal memo to employees provided to AIN, Boeing chairman, president and CEO Dennis Muilenburg said the objectives of creating the new organization are to drive down costs, integrate avionics as a vertical in the aircraft production process and gain Boeing entry into the services aftermarket.
The Boeing avionics organization is focused on producing navigation, flight-control and information systems for both commercial and military aircraft. There are currently 120 employees involved across different sites, with plans to staff up to 600 employees in 2019, according to the memo.
Allan Brown, previously vice president and program director of the Missile Defense National Team within Boeing Defense, heads the avionics organization; he reports to Boeing chief technology officer Greg Hyslop. The missile defense team is an industry consortium responsible for U.S. ballistic missile defense.
Boeing already produces vehicle management systems, remote data/remote interface units, secure computing systems and signals intelligence systems. “A lot of these capabilities we already have in-house, so it’s really bringing things together into one organization,” explained Boeing spokesman Charles Bickers. “We’re already doing this work at some of the major sites and otherwise.”
The avionics organization is positioned within Boeing’s engineering, test and technology organization, but does not currently have a headquarters, Bicker said.