Aurora plans Columbus composite manufacturing expansion

Columbus manufacturing investment

Aurora Flight Sciences, a Boeing company, is investing $43.8 million in expanding and renovating its composite-component manufacturing facility in Columbus, Mississippi. Construction is underway, with phased completion expected in 2026.

The Columbus project includes three changes:

50,000 square feet of additional manufacturing space;
Renovation of 40,000 square feet of existing space;
New automation equipment, robotics and non-destructive inspection technologies.

Aurora Flight Sciences

Aurora plans to add more than 60 Mississippi employees by the end of 2025. Its Columbus operations manufacture advanced composite components and assemblies for commercial and military aircraft.

The investment supports increased composite-component production for executive jets. Planned work also includes Boeing MQ-25 Stingray composite skins and components for NASA’s X-66 demonstrator.

Earlier expansion in West Virginia

Aurora opened its expanded Bridgeport, West Virginia, manufacturing facility on Apr 24, 2024. That project added almost 50,000 square feet, bringing the site to approximately 227,000 square feet.

The Bridgeport work doubled the clean room, added an autoclave and permanent freezers, and provided space for point-of-use tooling. An existing robotic composite manufacturing cell handles component machining, transport and dimensional inspection.

Aurora’s West Virginia operations began in Fairmont in 1994, before moving to Bridgeport in 1999. The company subsequently developed a six-building campus there. Its April expansion announcement set a five-year workforce target of growing from 200 to more than 300 employees.

Aurora provides on-site training for new employees and works with vocational programmes, community colleges and universities to connect students with employment opportunities. These employment plans concern West Virginia, separately from the Mississippi hiring target.

Experimental aircraft programme

Boeing and NASA are developing the full-scale X-66 through the Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project. The aircraft’s Transonic Truss-Braced Wing configuration uses extra-long, thin wings supported by diagonal struts.

The project aims to inform future single-aisle passenger aircraft. By Mar 7, 2024, Boeing had transported the MD-90 airframe selected for conversion to Palmdale, California, and removed its engines as modification work began. Building, testing and flying the demonstrator remained the project’s planned work.