Published October 2002

Boeing: Sonic Cruiser’s fate depends on airlines

By Bryan Corliss
Herald Business Writer

The Boeing Co. hopes to make a decision on whether to launch the Sonic Cruiser program by year’s end, the executive in charge of developing the jet said in September.

That’s adding emphasis to the company’s calls for changes that would make the state’s business climate more competitive, said Walt Gillette, vice president and general manager in charge of the program.

“We just need to have some positive actions,” he said. “We don’t have a long time.”

Gillette spoke Sept. 18 to the Snohomish County Economic Development Council. The group’s chairman, Reid Shockey, said local leaders will do all they can to help the company.

“Snohomish County wants to be where Boeing does its business,” he said. “We’re committed to doing what it needs to make them feel comfortable.”

Boeing is in regular discussions with potential customers for the Sonic Cruiser, said Gillette, an Everett resident who leads the program’s Everett-based design team. Ultimately, the airlines will decide when — or if — the program is launched, he said.

And with US Airways in bankruptcy and others reported to be close to bankruptcy, that’s complicating the process, he said.

“A lot of them, their preoccupation is how they’re going to meet next week’s cash flow,” Gillette said.

Boeing also is talking with the airlines about a more conventional jet that would incorporate some of the technology being developed for the Sonic Cruiser program, he said. Such a new plane would be similar in size to the 250-seat 757 or 767, but would be able to fly about 2,000 miles farther, giving it a range similar to the 777 and 747.

But the new delta-wing jet would be the first choice.

“We want the airlines to think carefully about the faster airplane,” he said, calling it a “great market opportunity.”

With a decision nearing on whether to launch the program, the decision on where to build the plane also is coming up, and that means talking about Washington’s business climate, Gillette said.

Western Washington “is where our heart is,” he said. “This is where we have chosen to build our nest.” But there are problems with being here, Gillette said. Washington’s unemployment insurance costs are the highest among the 27 states Boeing operates in, he said.

When Boeing expanded the Everett factory to add the 777 program, it was required to pay Snohomish County $50 million. But other states are dangling incentives that could total hundreds of millions — incentives Washington can’t match because of the state constitution.

And traffic around Puget Sound is so bad “it is faster for one of our trucks to get from Spokane to the Everett plant than from Frederickson (in Pierce County) to the Everett plant,” he said.

That results in delays as assembly workers wait for million-dollar parts “sitting in a truck going 12 miles per hour,” he said. So if time is money, “that’s real money.”

Boeing executives have been pushing the recommendations of Gov. Gary Locke’s business competitiveness council, which is co-chaired by Commercial Airplanes chief Alan Mulally. The council calls for a number of steps to address traffic, business taxes and regulations, plus improvements to the state’s educational system.

The response from the business community to Boeing’s position has been encouraging, he said. But it’s up to the Legislature to make things happen.

Local leaders will do their part, vowed Snohomish County Executive Bob Drewel.

“We want to be the center of aviation and aeronautics in this state, this country ... and in the world,” he said. “We want to be the place where you build that next airplane.”

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