Aircraft maker Spirit Aero, the company with large manufacturing operations in McAlester and Tulsa, Oklahoma has unveiled plans for $1 billion in expansion, including a new 7-story headquarters in Wichita, Kansas.
The $23 million headquarters will not only be high-tech and 7 stories tall but also capable of housing 2.3 million aircraft parts. Spirit says the headquarters will be called its Global Digital Logistics Center. It will also replace 500,000 square feet of space in the Spirit campus used to store parts and should be completed by mid-2019 but not operational until late in the year.
Spirit Aero’s senior vice president of fabrication and supply chain, Ron Rabe says the new building will use automation to house and retrieve parts.
“As our production rates increase—and we expand work on other programs, the timely logistics and delivery of aircraft components becomes even more critical to ensure our success,” he told the Wichita Eagle.
The paper reported that half of the new building will be paid for by the city of Wichita and Sedgwick County—-$7 million from the county and $3 million from the city. Spirit will pay the remaining $13 million.
The company already is in the process of adding 1,000 workers between this year and 2019.
