KYIV – Behind two meter high walls and inside an unmarked office center in Lukyanivka, the world’s largest aerospace company is quietly building a major design center based on Ukrainian brainpower.

At last report, the floor size of the Boeing Design Center Kyiv doubled this year, expanding the payroll to about 300 engineers. Hard facts are hard to come by as Boeing spokesmen decline to give specifics.

In contrast to this low profile in Kyiv, the Boeing Design Center Moscow, located a 15-minute walk from the Kremlin, was once a high profile showcase for US and Russian economic partnership. It drew glowing articles from the likes of The New York Times and site visits from US Cabinet members, including then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

But times have changed.

Elena Alexandrovna, Boeing spokeswoman for the Russia/CIS region, declined from Moscow to arrange a Kyiv site tour or to set up an interview with a Boeing official in Ukraine.

“One of the most important reasons for establishing Boeing Ukraine was to take advantage of the untapped potential of the aerospace engineering community in the Ukraine,” she eventually emailed.

Opened here in November 2013, days before the Maidan, Boeing’s Kyiv Design Center took on a real life in the spring of 2014 after dozens of Ukrainian designers in Moscow decided they no longer wanted to work in Russia.

While Boeing quietly ramped up employment here, it ducked publicity, apparently out of fear of jeopardising aircraft sales to Russia and its titanium supply relationship with Russia. Titanium is a key component of a jetliner and Russia’s VSMPO-Avisma Corp. is the world's largest titanium producer.

Both Russia and Ukraine have large commercial aviation fleets of Boeings. For example, Aeroflot flies 32 Boeings and Ukraine International Airlines flies 34 Boeings.

The membership directory of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine gives barebones details.

“Boeing Ukraine LLC, is a Ukrainian company, a wholly owned subsidiary of two US companies: The Boeing Company and its subsidiary, Boeing Russia, Inc., (USA),” the site states. “Boeing Ukraine LLC provides various types of services to The Boeing Company in support of Boeing’s commercial airplane programs, including consultation, research and technical assistance services.”

While largely invisible, the growing presence in Kyiv of the United States’ largest exporting company is a tip of the hat to Ukrainians’ aerospace expertise.

Ukraine is one of only nine countries in the world with a full cycle of aerospace products, including design and manufacturing. More than 5,000 aerospace students graduate from Ukrainian universities on an annual basis.

Boeing’s initial vision for the Kyiv office was to facilitate a natural rivalry with the Moscow Design Center for design projects, according to a trade union spokesman in Seattle, Washington.

“For years the workflow was just about sending work packages from U.S. plants to the Moscow Design Center,” emailed Bill Dugovich, spokesman for Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace. “Now Boeing has a choice and can have the two centers bid against each other.”

Engineering wages in Russia were estimated to be one third of Seattle levels.

In addition to benefiting from an influx of highly qualified Ukrainian engineers from Moscow, Boeing Ukraine works to develop new homegrown talent through a partnership with Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and Progresstech Group, a local aerospace technology firm.

Boeing’s presence in Ukraine helps position the local aerospace industry for further development, said Richard Aboulafia, Vice President of Analysis at the Teal Group, an American aerospace and defense consultancy, based in Fairfax, Virginia.

“There's a lot of engineering talent in the Ukraine, coupled with relatively low wages and not a lot of local employment opportunities,” he wrote in an email. “There seems to be strong chance that additional Western engineering work would be well-placed there.”

For comments and story tips, please email Harvey Hinman at this address: harvey.hinman@theubj.com.

And UBJ Editor in Chief James Brooke at: james.brooke@theubj.com

Photos

Ukraine International Airways takes delivery of a Boeing 737-900ER, one of 34 Boeing aircraft in the airline's fleet. (courtesy Ukraine International Airlines)

A rendering of the reception area of the Boeing Kyiv Design Center, by Kyiv-based architecture firm Yunakov Design. (courtesy Yunakov Design)

Behind the walls of an office center in Lukyanivka, Boeing has a growing design center (photo: Harvey Hinman)