Boeing Enters $1B Composite Deal

Boeing Co. awards a contract valued at $1 billion over 10 years to Mubadala Aerospace’s composite aerostructures unit, which will produce aircraft parts, as the Middle East expands its role as an aviation hub.

The parts will be made at the Strata Manufacturing site in Al Ain, the companies said in a joint-statement today. Strata, a subsidiary of the Mubadala investment fund in Abu Dhabi, will make empennage ribs for the 777 and vertical fin ribs for the 787 Dreamliner, and deliveries will start in 2013.

The deal is “comparative to the existing deal with Airbus which is in the range of $1 billion,” Mubadala Aerospace Executive Director Homaid al-Shemmari told reporters in Abu Dhabi today.

Abu Dhabi, home to about 7% of the world’s proven oil reserves, is branching out into aerospace as the United Arab Emirates’ biggest carriers, Emirates and Etihad, beef up their fleets to funnel travelers through the Middle East.

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