A new aerospace production assembly center is being developed by Sabreliner Corporation to complement its other manufacturing and aircraft maintenance and repair operations, the company announced.
The production assembly center will be located in a building adjacent to Sabreliner’s existing Ste. Genevieve, Mo., facility. Sabreliner purchased the new building this summer and is making improvements needed for it to begin operating as an assembly center this fall.
“Our expanded operations in southeast Missouri are a direct result of new business recently achieved by Sabreliner and will provide us with the production space we need for the manufacture of rudders for the U.S. Air Force KC-135 aircraft,” said F. Holmes Lamoreux, chairman and chief executive officer. “The new space also gives us the room and flexibility we need to meet other near-term expanding business opportunities.”
The existing Sabreliner facility in Ste. Genevieve is largely dedicated to the repair and overhaul of critical flight control components for U.S. military derivatives of the Boeing 707 aircraft, including the KC-135, used primarily for aerial refueling, and U.S. Navy E-6B Airborne Command Post aircraft. Sabreliner’s work is performed under contracts with the Boeing Company and L-3 Vertex.
The new plant, which represents the latest in a series of recent expansions of Sabreliner’s southeast Missouri operations, will add aircraft assembly and subassembly space to complement the company’s aircraft parts manufacturing operation in St. Mary, Mo. and its heavy aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul operations in Perryville, Mo. Much of Sabreliner’s manufacturing takes place in St. Mary, where aircraft parts are produced and chemically processed for such aerospace manufacturers as Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, Airbus, Bombardier Aerospace and Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.
Plans call for configuring the new structure to meet a variety of customer-specified kitting, assembly and subassembly requirements, many of them in conjunction with the Sabreliner’s KC-135 and P-3 Orion aircraft work, and to provide needed space for the fabrication and assembly of large pieces of tooling used in manufacturing and repair activities. In January, Boeing awarded Sabreliner a $15 million contract to manufacture rudders for the KC-135.
Sabreliner Corp. is a proven provider of a wide variety of civilian and government aviation services, as well as an acknowledged leader in aviation production support. The company has more than 375 employees and 400,000 square feet of aviation maintenance, manufacturing, processing and repair facilities at three service locations in Missouri and one in Kansas. Its headquarters are in St. Louis.
