Boeing maintenance repair overhaul hangar opens in Jacksonville (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal) — Flying up to 41,000 feet, equipped with torpedoes and sonobuoys, the U.S. Navy’s P-8 multi-mission, maritime patrol aircraft is an eye-in-the-sky for anti-submarine warfare and rescue missions.
But behind that military might is maintenance, and new Boeing facilities can take care of those needs for the P-8 planes and other military aircraft right here in Jacksonville.
Boeing (NYSE: BA), which has been in Jacksonville since 1999, opened its new maintenance, repair and overhaul hangar and component operations repair facility Friday at 5868 Approach Road in the Northeast Area of Cecil Airport.
Boeing Jacksonville plans to have 300 employees work at the facility. At the moment, there are 100 vacancies the company needs to fill, and more positions will be posted as Boeing begins receiving more P-8 planes.
Veterans already make up 60% of Boeing’s current workforce at Cecil Airport.
“We recruit locally and abroad, folks that are experienced with the Boeing platforms. Our team, many of whom have been maintainers of the product both in their military days and now they are working for Boeing and just really doing a fantastic job,” Sherrard said. “It’s bringing that expertise, the technology and all of that expertise and training into our operation in the maintenance of these aircraft.”
It’s the biggest project the Jacksonville Aviation Authority has ever done, CEO Mark VanLoh said.
And the scope of the project will draw more of the aviation industry to Jacksonville and Cecil Airport.
“Boeing was the first. And if you think about Burger King and McDonald’s, wherever you see McDonald’s, you see Burger King,” VanLoh said. “So we’re gonna start to see major suppliers to Boeing pop up.”
The new Boeing facility, which broke ground in 2021, is 385,000 square feet, and Boeing is on a $36.6 million contract with the Navy to maintain and upgrade P-8 planes. There is also 275,000 square feet of eight-hangar bays and 110,000 square feet of office and support space.
The hangars can accommodate eight P-8 planes, and a ramp area can accommodate 14 fighter jets and two wide-body and five narrow-body aircraft. P-8 planes will come to the facility in phases, according to Boeing.
Rhiannon Sherrard, the Boeing site leader for Jacksonville, said the company is under contract with the Navy for modifications on 11 P-8 planes.
Work at the facility also includes upgrading F/A-18 Super Hornets for the Navy’s Blue Angels, F/A-18 structural repairs and avionics upgrades for fleet aircraft and upgrades to KC-46 jets.
Adjacent to the maintenance, repair and overhaul facility is the 150,000-square-foot component operations repair facility, which is planned to be used for work on flight control surfaces and parts for F/A-18 and KC-46 aircraft and is set to be in operation in the coming months, according to Boeing.