Airbus to add engineers to Old Town facility

WICHITA — Airbus North America Engineering in the heart of Old Town said Tuesday it plans to hire 30 to 60 additional engineers over the next two months as it expands capabilities.

“We’re looking for a solid core of Airbus engineers to form a fuselage capability,” said John O’Leary, vice president of engineering at Airbus North America Engineering.

The facility employs about 300 engineers. It specializes in wing design, which accounts for about 85 percent of its work.

Now, it’s adding engineering work for the fuselage of the Airbus A350 Extra Wide Body program. It will need engineers in aerospace, design and structures analysis.

The number of engineers it will hire depends on the scope of work it receives, said O’Leary, who is in charge of the Wichita facility. It also may require expanding its facilities, which have room for about 40 more engineers.

“There’s potential to expand later in the year if we need to,” he said. “We’re talking to (Old Town developer) Dave Burk about the potential.”

If so, it would be the second expansion since Airbus opened its Old Town facility 10 years ago, and the second in less than two years. In June 2010, Airbus opened a second site across the street from its current location. The site was the former Kansas Sports Hall of Fame facility at 238 N. Mead, which Burk bought and renovated.

The extra room was necessary to take on engineering for in-service repair work. At the time, Airbus officials said it would add 80 engineers, which it has done, O’Leary said.

The timing of Tuesday’s announcement could give Airbus the opportunity to hire Boeing engineers who may want to stay in Wichita, he said. Boeing said earlier this month that it planned to close its Wichita facilities by the end of 2013. Boeing employs 2,160 people in Wichita, including 546 engineers.

The Wichita site is the largest Airbus engineering center outside Europe and the largest U.S. Airbus facility. The Wichita operations opened in 2002 with 27 employees, said Airbus spokesman Clay McConnell.

“Wichita is still seen as quite a shining star,” he said.