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Parker Lands $3.5B Contract, Set To Hire

Parker Aerospace, the Irvine-based unit of Cleveland’s Parker Hannifin Corp., has won one of its biggest commercial contracts ever to make steering controls for Canada’s Bombardier Inc.

The contract should bring as much as $3.5 billion in the next decade to the company.

The contract calls for Parker to make its “fly by wire” steering controls for Bombardier’s new wide body jet,the CSeries,seating nearly 150 passengers.

Many in the industry consider the controls to be the future of passenger jets as the current pulleys and rods that move rudders and flaps are replaced with electronic signals.

The benefit of electronic steering controls is a safer and smoother ride, according to Glenn Zwicker, director of engineering for Parker’s control systems unit in Irvine.

Initially developed for the Pentagon’s F-22 and F-35 fighter planes, the controls were designed to be smarter and faster than human pilots.

“They keep pilots from doing unsafe maneuvers and adjust quickly to things like turbulence,” Zwicker said.

The CSeries jet is expected to go into service in 2013. German carrier Lufthansa AG said it is interested in 60 of the regional planes, with each carrying a price tag of nearly $47 million.

The new plane will compete with Boeing Co.’s 717 and the 318 and 319 models of Airbus SAS, part of European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co.

Parker wants to add about 20 jobs for the work. The company already is struggling to fill about 130 positions for engineering and technical work.

“We’ve especially had a hard time filling jobs in Orange County,” spokeswoman Cheryl Flohr said.

Parker is the second largest aerospace and defense contractor operating in the county with 1,800 workers. Boeing is the biggest with 9,600.

A dearth of qualified people and expensive real estate hurt recruiting efforts, according to Zwicker.

He said he has about 250 engineers and technicians in Irvine, 40 in Ogden, Utah, and 15 in Dublin, Ga.

“These are highly skilled jobs, they’re very difficult to (fill), and it’s especially hard to attract people to Irvine,” he said.


For more on this story, see the Aug. 4 edition of the Business Journal.

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