Taking Flight

an Clemente-based Swift Engineering Inc. is a self-described “shop of geeks” with roots in racecars and ambitions in the sky.

Hiro Matsushita, a former racecar driver and grandson of the founder of Japan’s Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.,maker of Panasonic,owns the 25-year-old company.

Swift’s parent company is Matsushita International Corp., which also owns industrial parks.

Racecars are a big part of Swift’s business. Cars designed by the company have been driven by some of the sport’s biggest stars, including Michael Andretti, Robby Gordon, Christian Fittipaldi and Richie Hearn.

Swift doesn’t make engines or electronics, just the bodies of racecars.

“The skin is the strength,” said Mark Page, chief scientist with the company.

These days, aerospace and aviation work is taking up more of Swift’s time.

Page is a former Boeing Co. engineer who began designing planes for Swift during downtime from racecar work.

The company spends as much as 30% of its yearly revenue,projected at $25 million for 2009,on new designs.

Swift started banging on the door of aerospace and defense contractors in 2000. It wasn’t until two years ago that it started making progress.

Racecars are half of Swift’s business. But aircraft sales are where the company expects to grow, according to Rick Egan, Swift’s president.

Swift worked with Waltham, Mass.-based Raytheon Co. to make a couple dozen unmanned spy planes known as KillerBees, which are used by the Navy and Marines for surveillance and some attack missions.

It also has worked with Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman Corp. and still makes parts for Northrop’s Global Hawk unmanned plane.

The KillerBee’s “blended wing” design makes it look like one giant wing, something Page got his start doing for Boeing in the 1990s.

Boeing is Swift’s main competitor for future contracts, he said.

The KillerBee has a 10-foot wingspan and weighs 150 pounds. The military likes it for its convenience,battlefield commanders can tow one behind a Humvee.

“It’s like the laptop of unmanned vehicles,” Page said.

KillerBees represent about 20% of Swift’s business.

The Pentagon has budgeted $100 million for the Marines to buy unmanned planes, according to Egan. As much as $1 billion might be expected from the Pentagon in coming years, he said.

Egan said he thinks the planes eventually will be used in other industries for things like inspecting farm fields and pipelines. They even could replace TV news helicopters, he said.

“But the FAA needs to approve it,” Egan said.

Like Page, Egan is an aerospace veteran, having previously worked at Savannah, Ga.-based Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., part of General Dynamics Corp.

Eclipse 400

Swift made and designed a prototype four-seat jet for Albuquerque-based Eclipse Aviation Corp.

The Eclipse 400 debuted at the AirVenture show in Oshkosh, Wis., a year ago. The company is expected to give more details about productions plans later this year.

“It could be a huge deal for us,” Egan said. “They were looking to make about 5,000 of them.”

Swift is running at about 30% of its production capacity, according to Egan. It would look to outsource work for a large contract, he said.

The Eclipse 400, with an estimated price tag of $1.3 million each, targets rich people who would use them for short trips.

“They said they wanted something sexy,” Egan said. “Part of the requirements was that it easily stores skis and a golf bag.”

The plane has a range of about 1,200 miles, a top speed of 330 knots (about 380 mph) and can fly 41,000 feet high.

The prototype took about 200 days to make from design to finish, Egan said.

“We’re very proud of that,” he said. “Most larger companies probably couldn’t pull that off.”

Other companies competing in the market are Duluth, Minn.-based Cirrus Design Corp. and Canada’s Diamond Aircraft Industries Inc.

Honda Aircraft Co. in Greensboro, N.C., part of Japan’s Honda Motor Co., also has a light jet that can carry about seven people and a $3 million price tag.

Swift likes to keep its designs simple, as it has done with racecars in the past couple of decades.

The “open wheel” cars it specializes in are smaller and less powerful than the Formula One cars used in races such as the Indianapolis 500. Swift stopped making Indy-style cars in 2000.

“Drivers love them because it takes more strategy to win,” he said.

Swift makes its cars in batches for specific circuits, such as Japan’s Formula Nippon racing series that it recently delivered 24 cars for.

It will spend the next three years making replacement parts for them.

Swift also is working on other projects that Egan said he couldn’t talk much about. One of them is a flying motorcycle called a Sky Bike, he said.

“Companies have hired us to get away from their own rules,” Page said.

Swift has struggled to hire workers, like other specialty manufacturers in the county.

The company has about 100 workers, many of them race fans. It operates from two buildings that take up 45,000 square feet.

The mostly handcrafted work is hard to find experienced people for, according to Jan Wesley Refsdal, director of operations.

Many employees are former woodworkers who are used to crafting things by hand. Sometimes they’re right out of high school, he said.

“It’s specialized work,” Refsdal said. “We need people who can think on their feet.”

The company’s San Clemente location, which Refsdal said he considers remote, also has made it tough to attract workers, he said.

Cost of Materials

Soaring costs for carbon fiber, up threefold in the past few years to $50 to $70 per pound, is another challenge.

That could change as the material becomes more popular in the industry, Refsdal said.

Big projects that rely on carbon fiber, like Boeing’s 787, could inspire companies to find ways to make the material cheaper, he said.

Carbon fiber is shipped to the company and stored in a freezer to keep the epoxy, a type of resin that holds it together.

After pieces for Swift’s cars and planes are stamped out using a cookie cutter-like machine, they’re crafted into their designs and baked in a big oven.

Swift’s most crucial work takes place in a wind tunnel that takes up most of a 15,000-square-foot building. The tunnel tests the streamlined efficiency of its cars and planes.

The company made the building and tunnel in the early 1990s with a $5 million investment.

Matsushita bought the company in 1991 from one of its founders, Alex Cross, who also was his racing trainer.

Swift’s owner has a “hands-on” role with the company, working from a San Clemente office that also supports his real estate company.

He keeps a home in San Clemente and also spends time in Japan with his Pacific Marketing, which handles sponsorship arrangements for Panasonic.

In 1918, grandfather Konosuke Matsushita started Matsushita Electric, one of Japan’s largest electronics makers.

In October, the company plans to change its name to Panasonic Corp.