State, Spirit Aerosystems officials celebrate start of construction

September 15, 2008

David Anderson

Staff Writer

According to the old saying, a journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step - or in the case of Spirit AeroSystems, the turning of shovelfuls of dirt.

Top state officials, including the current and former governor, joined executives of Spirit and its customer Airbus for a groundbreaking ceremony at the Global TransPark on Monday.

The groundbreaking marked the beginning of nearly two years of construction on a 500,000-square foot manufacturing facility, where Spirit workers will design and build the center fuselage frame and wing structures for Airbus' new A350 Xtra Wide-Body passenger aircraft.

"The Global TransPark has established its potential with Spirit AeroSystems," Eugene Conti, vice president of the Global TransPark Authority, said during the ceremony.

Conti acknowledged longtime supporters of the Global TransPark who attended Monday's event, including former Gov. Jim Martin, Kinston businessman and Global TransPark Foundation Board President Felix Harvey and Dr. John Kasarda of the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC-Chapel Hill, who first developed the GTP concept in the late 1980s.

"I want to say, thank you for all you've done," Conti said.

He also recognized the Golden LEAF Foundation, which provided a $100 million grant toward building the Spirit facility, part of a multimillion-dollar package of state, county and city incentives.

Gov. Mike Easley said Spirit's arrival is helping to develop a statewide aerospace industry.

"Everyone is going to take a cue from what you all are doing in Kinston," he said.

According to U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-District 1, Spirit will provide a major economic boost to the First District.

"We are the 15th poorest district in the nation and we need what you have to offer," Butterfield told Spirit executives in the crowd.

Dan Wheeler, vice president and general manager of Spirit's new North Carolina Business Unit, called Monday "a great day for Spirit AeroSystems."

"We're deeply grateful to Airbus for selecting us for the A350," he said.

Wheeler introduced the five executives who will be working with him in Kinston, and said he expects to begin production in April of 2010.

He said after the ceremony that employees of various categories will be hired and trained in the months leading up to the start of production.

Company officials will begin recruiting engineers later this year; Wheeler said several hundred engineering positions will be created in Kinston.

Most of the other workers, including administrators, technology support staffers, factory mechanics, machine operators, machine programmers and repair technicians, will be hired in late 2009 and early 2010.

Job candidates can apply online, and should have an e-mail address even if they do not have Internet access - free e-mail accounts such as Google's G-mail can be set up at the local library.

Kinston is one of the few places outside of Europe where A350 components will be manufactured before everything is put together at Airbus' main factory in Toulouse, France - the first completed A350 is expected to roll out of there in 2013.

Allan McArtor, chairman of Airbus Americas Inc., said the company selected Spirit as a builder because of its reputation as the world's leading supplier of aircraft components.

McArtor said Airbus looks to "Tier 1" suppliers such as Spirit, which has produced components for the company in the past, because those firms work with the hundreds of subcontractors needed to create the component, instead of Airbus, and deliver a completed product.

"Spirit has demonstrated to us, not only that they are world-class now, (but) we can count on them to be industry leaders (in the future)," he said.

McArtor said the N.C. Global TransPark was an ideal site for production because the state is known for its well-trained workforce, Kinston had a "dynamic airport environment," and it is a short distance from Morehead City's deep-water port.

"I immediately knew it was a great choice," McArtor said when he learned that the TransPark had been selected.

Finally, aircraft builders use a cylindrical device called an autoclave to create composite materials. Airbus needed an autoclave larger than any of those in existence, so it will be built at site that can handle it, the GTP.

"It was a combination of Spirit, Airbus and North Carolina coming together all at the same time," McArtor said.

David Anderson can be reached at (252) 559-1077 or danderson@freedomenc.com.