Boeing, Gulfstream Aerospace and West Star Aviation outlined ongoing manufacturing, completions and maintenance work in the St. Louis region during a panel at the Global Aerospace Summit in O’Fallon, Illinois. The session focused on building and sustaining the fleet across OEM, MRO and defence operations, with Boeing’s F-15EX, MQ-25 Stingray and other military programmes, Gulfstream’s completions work and West Star’s business aircraft maintenance footprint all featured.
Mary Lamie of Bi-State Development moderated the discussion. Boeing’s St. Louis operations employ about 18,000 people and include production of the F-15EX, F/A-18 Super Hornet, T-7A Red Hawk and MQ-25, alongside ground-based flight-test simulators and weapons systems. The company is investing $1.8 billion to expand F-15EX work near St. Louis Lambert International Airport and aims to double output to two aircraft a month. It also operates a $200 million MQ-25 manufacturing facility at Scott Air Force Base’s MidAmerica St. Louis Airport.
Gulfstream has invested more than $30 million at St. Louis Downtown Airport in Cahokia and added more than 200 jobs as it expands from maintenance into completions of green jets. West Star Aviation, based at St. Louis Regional Airport in East Alton, employs more than 700 people and provides business aircraft MRO, avionics work, paint, interior refurbishment, AOG support and engine repair. The company operates 117 aircraft across 600,000 square feet of facilities and expected to deliver 40 to 43 aircraft by the end of August.