Boeing expands R&D centre in Bengaluru.

Boeing has expanded significantly its engineering and technology centre in Bengaluru and said the centre will play a crucial role in areas like materials science, flight science and data analytics as the aircraft maker moves towards using newer materials for building planes and using the increasing amounts of digital data being generated to make all operations more efficient.

The 42,000-sqft Boeing India Engineering & Technology Centre (BIETC) will house about 300 engineers, and that capacity will expand to double that by the end of the year. Overall, the company now employs about 500 engineers in Bengaluru, and this number will rise to 800 by the time the full capacity becomes operational.

'It was very evident to me early on that the talent available here will make the difference for us if we have to remain competitive and innovative in the future,' chief technology officer Greg Hyslop, who was in Bengaluru for the launch, said.

Hyslop said the first century of aerospace was defined by aerodynamicists, but the second will be defined by chemists and mathematicians. The Bengaluru centre will support areas as diverse as development of advanced environment friendly coatings and data analytics for next generation airplane health management tools to software tools for airlines and airports to improve their operations and reduce costs.

Test & evaluations will also be a significant part of the centre's responsibility.

'Any new technology, if they have to find its place commercially or for defence, you have to find ways to certify and that is where this team is playing a key role,' said Hyslop.

He said the most expensive part of building a new aircraft was flight tests, and indicated the centre here would work on building better flight simulation systems to bring down the cost..

TOI