Published May 2004

Flight Structures to make installation kits for 737 Internet service

By Bryan Corliss
Herald Business Writer

A Marysville aerospace company will produce installation kits for the Boeing Co.’s new in-flight Internet service on 737 jets.

The announcement that Flight Structures Inc. had been picked for the work came April 21, the same day that its parent company, B/E Aerospace, announced it had increased its sales and narrowed its losses in the first quarter.

Flight Structures will design, certify and manufacture the kits for 737s being retrofitted with Connexion by Boeing Internet service. Boeing will install the new service on Lufthansa planes soon.

All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines and Scandinavian Airlines System have definitive agreements to add the service to their long-range jets. British Airways, China Airlines and Singapore Airlines have announced they intend to add them to their long-range fleets. But so far, Boeing has not found customers who want the service on smaller, shorter-range, single-aisle jets like the 737.

Hiring Flight Structures for the Connexion program will help speed the certification and introduction of the service on 737s, said Beverly Wyse, Connexion’s director of deployment and installation. Flight Structures has “a particularly strong record of performance and experience in the integration and certification arena,” she said.

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