Aerospace majors tap Indian talent

Bangalore: Indian aviation expertise is now no longer confined to the cockpit and the crew. Domestic talent is now being tapped for the design and system integration of aircraft as well. Aerospace majors such as Airbus and Boeing have formed partnerships with the IISc, IITs and IIM-Bangalore to develop their next-generation air-birds, including A380s, A350s and the 787 Dreamliner.
Chief executive officer of Airbus Engineering Centre India (AECI) Eugen Welte told ET that their company had decided to set up operations in India to source talent and develop competency here. “Of the 130 people recruited here, 120 are engineers and the company will increase the number to 400 by 2012,” he said.
“As part of our internationalisation strategy, we will offshore 20% of our work by 2020, and India will get a big share of this followed by Russia and China”, said Mr Welte.
“ We will be going to IISc and IITs for campus recruitment by December-end or early January to recruit more hands. We are also sending engineers to Europe to gain more expertise from teams there,” said Joellle Willaume, head of the engineering division at AECI.
Boeing, which started its Indian lab in Bangalore with 30 engineers, said that this lab was the third of its kind outside the US where engineers work on multiple projects involving advanced design, autonomous and network-centric systems, spacecraft designs and new structure and material technologies.Boeing has stated that another 100 engineers will collaborate with its various projects being carried out with premier Indian academia and research and development (R&D) institutions.
Mr Welte of Airbus said that due to availability of this talent pool, India can play a major role for future projects such as building planes which are 30% more efficient than today’s craft.
16/10/09 Peerzada Abrar/Economic Times