Bringing Russian talent to the world

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Business RT spoke with James F. Albaugh, Executive Vice President at Boeing about the companies involvement in Russia and the problems with the Dreamliner.

RT:  You’re a launch partner for Russia’s new silicon valley project, Skolkovo – How big a division can Russia become for you?JA:  “Well let me just say this, right now we have some 2 thousand engineers and programmers working in our Moscow design centre.  And they are about 15% of the engineering talent in the Boeing company.  They were very involved in the 787, they’ve done design on the 777 and the 747. And we are looking for other opportunities.  There is a great aerospace heritage in Russia, very well trained people, and there is great value there as well. And the other thing we’ve done, it’s not just doing work there, but we’ve been able to grab some really talented people out of our design centre, and bring them back to the United States and also have them do work for us in other locations around the world.”RT:  Yesterday Boeing put a 3rd quarter release date on the dreamliner, a couple of years off schedule – What lessons do you learn from the project?JA:  “Well, I think when we selected some of our partners, we asked partners to do things that they hadn’t done before.  And we also didn’t provide the oversight that we should have.  And I think the other lesson in this, is that we need to make sure that we at Boeing understand how to design every element of the aeroplane and how to build every element of the aeroplane.  It doesn’t mean we build everything, but we build some of everything, so that if a partner gets into trouble, we can go help, or if they get in a lot of trouble we can bring it back within the company.”