AT A GLANCE / BOEING HUNTSVILLE Boeing’s offices and production facilities in Huntsville, Ala., are home to a variety of programs, mainly related to space exploration, strategic missiles and design engineering. Some of the notable businesses at the site: Patriot Advanced Capability-3, or PAC-3 – Boeing’s Missiles and Unmanned Airborne Systems division has produced nearly 1,500 PAC-3 missile seekers for prime contractor Lockheed Martin. Ground-based Midcourse defense – The only missile defense system to protect the United States from long-range ballistic missiles. It uses an array of sea, land and space-based sensors, and interceptors based in Alaska and California, to track and destroy the ballistic missiles. Boeing is prime contractor and is responsible for development, production and sustainment of the system’s elements. Flight Center, the Missile Defense Agency, the U.S. Army’s Redstone Arsenal and Cummings Research Park, the second-largest research park in the United States and fourth-largest research and technology park in the world. In 2009, Forbes magazine named Huntsville one of the smartest cities in the world, and Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine has ranked the Huntsville area’s economy as No. 1 in the nation and given it high marks as a place to raise families. Design “Huntsville, to me, is just a hotbed of state- Center, of-the-art technology,” said Dan Day, quality said he’s assurance manager for the GMD program and seen a a Huntsville employee since 1981. “You don’t diverse realize what’s here until you come and see it.” range of Like many others at Boeing Huntsville, programs, Day mentions the “freedom” of working at a heritage small site, where employees frequently move companies between programs. and employees from “You don’t have to move across the other Boeing sites country to diversify your portfolio,” said converge over the Terrence Chance, a senior business analyst past 27 years. with the Standard Missile-3 Block IIB program “Huntsville has who joined Boeing in 2004. been a melting pot Ryanne Jones, a product review engineer with of companies and the GMD program, echoed that thought: “I like corporate cultures, the site because there are so many opportunities as well as the to work on different projects and systems,” said cultures you get from across the country,” he Jones, who grew up in Alabama and graduated said. “It’s been interesting to watch how it all from nearby University of Alabama–Huntsville. melded and fit in Huntsville very nicely.” “There are so many things Boeing does that New arrivals often are surprised to find that you can apply to your job, no matter what your the north-central Alabama area boasts one of the engineering background.” highest per-capita populations of engineers and Longtime employees end up crossing back residents with doctorate degrees in the United and forth with other programs beyond Huntsville. States. In addition to Boeing, a long list of other Those who worked for years supporting the defense-related firms have offices in Huntsville, International Space Station program, for example, which also is home to NASA Marshall Space BOEING FRONTIERS / SEPTEMBER 2012 25
Frontiers September 2012 Issue
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