Boeing recently received the first landing gear sets manufactured by Québec company Héroux-Devtek; the delivery was made at Boeing’s Everett, Washington, plant. Héroux-Devtek will produce about a hundred sets a year until 2024 for 777s, signalling its entry into the market for more than 100-seat commercial aircraft, and into the integrator market.
“Delivering the first landing gear set to Boeing is the testimony that we can successfully produce complex and large landing gear systems,” said Gilles Labbé, president and chief executive officer of Héroux-Devtek. “We are now at full speed in executing the largest contract in our history.”
To fulfill this long-term contract, Héroux-Devtek had to build infrastructure, acquire machinery and set up a supply chain. It invested $105 million in its facilities in Québec, Ontario and Cleveland, Ohio. The company even built a plant for the final assembly of the landing gear in Seattle, close to Boeing’s facilities. These investments also enabled it to fine-tune its production methods and continue integrating new industrial procedures, raising its automated production hours from 35% to 50% in four years.
“We’re pleased with Héroux-Devtek’s performance to reach this milestone as they deliver their first landing gear for the 777 program,” stated Kent Fisher, vice president and general manager of Boeing Commercial Airplanes Supplier Management.
Héroux-Devtek is now working to complete the design for the next generation of landing gear for the 777X program, for which Boeing has a firm order book of more than 300 aircraft.
Québec aerospace manufacturers
Héroux-Devtek 
, whose head office is in Longueuil, Québec, is just one of many Québec manufacturers with an excellent international reputation. Learn about some of the other players that are helping to make Québec’s aerospace industry so dynamic.
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