Manitoba Aerospace Week

Aerospace industry hits new heights M By Jennifer McFee For the Free Press anitoba's aerospace sector is soaring to new heights as the ever-expanding industry races to provide new, greener aircraft to keep up to the booming demand for air travel. Ken Webb, Executive Director of the Manitoba Aerospace Association, explains that highly-skilled aerospace experts provide the research, development and production capabilities to design aircraft, manufacture components, assemble airplanes and provide maintenance, repair and overhaul services. "The aerospace industry is the people who design, build and maintain aircraft and space systems, as opposed to the aviation industry, which is the people that operate them and the supporting infrastructure" he said. In Manitoba, this globally competitive market provides more than 5,500 direct jobs, as well as indirect and spinoff employment. Bringing in more than $1 billion per year in sales revenue, Manitoba is the third-largest aerospace hub in Canada after Quebec and Ontario. More than 80 per cent of the products and services are exported around the world. Here in Manitoba, three global names – Boeing, StandardAero and Magellan Aerospace anchor the sector along with a robust collection of world-class firms that specialize in component manufacturing, repair and overhaul services, global parts sourcing, aircraft modifications, and software development. The Winnipeg Boeing plant manufactures components for all models of Boeing commercial airliners, including the 787 Dreamliner. Built in the 1970s, this plant is Canada's largest facility to manufacture composites, which are strong but light materials that replace metal components in aircraft. Winnipeg's Boeing plant has also designed and built new technologies to make aircraft quieter, inside and out. 2 Manitoba Aerospace Week September 9 - 13, 2013 Its Murray Park Road plant is expanding by 14,000 square metres to make parts for the next generation 737MAX. Founded in Winnipeg in 1911, StandardAero is now one of the world's largest aviation support businesses, specializing in gas turbine engine maintenance, repair and overhaul. StandardAero keeps commercial airliners and the Canadian, U.S. and foreign militaries flying around the globe. Together with General Electric, they operate one of the world's newest engine testing and certification centres at the Winnipeg airport, where engines are tested for icing and other conditions before they are certified for production. Formerly known as Bristol, Magellan Aerospace designs and manufactures engine units, metal and composite parts, small satellites and rocket systems and components for the F-35 Lightning II, one of the most advanced fighter jets in the world. A recent agreement with BAE Systems could lead to over $1-billion worth of composites manufacturing in their newly expanded Winnipeg plant. Although they may not be household aerospace names yet, Manitoba has a number of dynamic companies that are well known across the continent and around the world. Advanced Composites Structures, Cadorath, Cormer Aerospace and EMTEQ are all expanding internationally and MicroPilot sells UAV autopilots in over 60 countries. AeroRecip is the largest piston engine overhaul shop in Canada and Argus, Enduron and Standard Manufacturers are working to world-class status through the Competitive Edge program. Manitoba is also home to a number of innovative research centres, including two of the world's newest icing and environmental testing and certification facilities for aircraft engines. The Global Aerospace Centre for Icing and Environmental Research (GLACIER) in Thompson is a joint venture between Rolls-Royce Canada and Pratt & Whitney Canada, and Winnipeg is home to the GE Aviation Engine Testing Research & Development Centre.

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