Airbus, Dassault mark their Innovation Campus openings

Five months after Airbus Americas Engineering moved from Old Town to its new building at Wichita State University’s Innovation Campus, the company’s top executives officially christened it on Thursday.

The hour-long celebration of the European airplane maker’s 90,000-square-foot building included remarks from Airbus Americas president and CEO Barry Eccleston; Airbus Group chairman Allan McArtor; John O’Leary, vice president and general manager of the Wichita operation; WSU president John Bardo; and Kansas Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer.

They touted the new location as important to recruiting aerospace engineering graduates as well as stimulating collaboration between employees and students, and stirring creativity.

“We’ve all the reasons in the world to be here,” Eccleston said. “Airbus lives and breathes innovation. It’s how we got to be where we are today.”

O’Leary said the new office gives Airbus “a new capability” and that it’s up to him and the company’s 300-plus engineers in Wichita to best discover “how to take advantage of that unique capability to the benefit of our company.”

A new generation of aircraft will require Airbus engineers to come up with new methods and processes in the design of those airplanes.

“Our presence here on the Innovation Campus gives us the infrastructure, tools and resources to do just that,” O’Leary said.

Airbus’ new location comes as the company marks its 15th year in Wichita, where it came originally seeking engineering help for the design of the wings of its A380 super jumbo jet.

Wichita was Airbus’ first operation outside Europe.

The company first settled on a 12,600-square-foot warehouse at 213 N. Mead with about two dozen employees. Over a roughly eight-year period, the Wichita office took on work for more Airbus programs and its employment swelled to 200, requiring the company to add a second Old Town location at 238 N. Mead.

Today, the Wichita office does wing design work on all Airbus commercial jetliners: the A320 family of narrow-body jets as well as its A330, A340 and A350XWB wide-body jets, including upgraded versions of those models known as neo, or new engine option.

The Wichita operation also houses a team of workers and engineers assigned to Airbus’ in-service repair and customer support center, which works directly with airlines that operate its aircraft. Wichita is one of three centers — the others are in France and Malaysia — that provide around-the clock support to airlines that need assistance repairing an Airbus airframe or structure.

Immediately following the Airbus event, WSU officials gathered next door at the Experiential Engineering Building, also new to the Innovation Campus, where executives from Dassault Systemes held a ribbon-cutting for its 3DExperience Center.

The French company, a spinoff of airplane maker Dassault, partnered with WSU on the 3-D additive manufacturing research center to serve as a resource to local manufacturers and encourage regional expansion of advanced manufacturing.

“I think you’ve got the biggest ideas lab we have in Dassault Systemes, in Wichita, Kansas. Good job,” said Bruno Latchague, Dassault Systemes senior executive vice president, at the ribbon cutting.

This story was originally published April 27, 2017 at 5:47 PM with the headline "Airbus, Dassault mark their Innovation Campus openings."