Spring 2007

As director of engineering at Boeing Wichita, Bruce Glaser’s job is a big one. Glaser oversees the site’s engineering functions and the 1,300 engineers who work on diverse aircraft projects such as Air Force One and E-4B transport aircraft, B-52 bombers and KC-135 and KC-767 air refueling tankers. The Wichita facility upgrades and modernizes existing aircraft. In the case of the KC-135 refueler, that means keeping 50-year-old planes flying. “Those challenges are as great or greater than a new program sometimes,” Glaser said.

Wichita also is working on new projects, such as the 767 tanker. Boeing is bidding on a contract to supply refueling tankers to the U.S. Air Force. The Wichita site plans to deliver Japan’s first 767 tanker later this month. It recently began work on a second tanker for Japan.

Other Boeing sites also turn to Wichita for engineering help. A team of 75 engineers, for example, is helping with Boeing’s 747-8, a new family of intercontinental aircraft.

That team likely will grow, Glaser said. Glaser joined Boeing Wichita in 2004 from St. Louis where he was director of engineering for Boeing’s F-15 program.

Glaser has come a long way from his high school days when he thought an engineer was someone who conducted trains. A self-proclaimed math nut, Glaser credits his high school calculus teacher and guidance counselors for helping him discover that engineering meant creating things and that mathematical formulas can be used for more than crunching numbers.

Glaser graduated with degrees in math and electrical engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (1980) in Indiana. He earned a master’s degree in engineering from Washington University in St. Louis and a master’s in international business from St. Louis University.

While his job is a demanding one, Glaser tries hard to balance work and family. He admits that sometimes he’s more successful than others. But “being home is very important,” he said. Glaser enjoys spending time with his wife, Kathy, and their three children. He also is excited about a new role he will soon assume — that of a grandfather. And he enjoys snow skiing and biking.

With such diverse projects, what is your biggest day-to-day challenge?
“By far it’s meeting all the demands of all the programs here.... It’s just every day juggling the people needed to support all the programs.”

You said that when a plane is nearing completion, you must put extra people on the project. Any examples?
“Last December, we delivered the Saudi head of state aircraft. We had to put a lot of resources on that in the last three months of that contract. We’re trying to deliver Japan No. 1 (the first 767 refueling tanker to go to Japan) this month. Over the last several months we put a lot of extra resources on that program.”

What other challenges do you encounter?
“Because we do (the) first of a model and we don’t have large production runs, it seems like everything we do is always a discovery because it’s never been done before. (By comparison) if you’re doing aircraft No. 50 of a particular type... your processes, your data, your drawings, your support of the shop floor is a well-tuned machine.”

Rep. Todd Tiahrt’s office has said that if Boeing is the successful bidder for the U.S. Air Force tanker program, it would mean 300 to 500 jobs for Boeing Wichita. Will the work sustain jobs or will there be new ones?
“There won’t be a lot of new ones based on what I know today, but there’s a lot of variables in that.”

What else may be ahead for projects and engineering staffing in Wichita?
“We also have other new contracts in the works that, depending on the timing, could drive us to a significant hiring boom in engineering. We look out at 12 months in our crystal ball... (but) we don’t always have visibility into what contracts are going to come in that 12-month period.”

You declined to say specifically what work might come to Wichita, but can you say in general terms?
“There’s a variety of special air mission (aircraft) that could come.”

You mentioned a special mission aircraft in which the design drawings no longer represent all the modifications made to it by Boeing and others. How do you work with that?
“We have some new tools that allow us to go in when the airplane arrives. You pull the panels off and take high-resolution photos of the inside of the airplane, and through some special software, convert that into a three-dimensional... drawing.”

How would you describe your management style?
“I delegate. I try to set the overall direction, but I expect the people who work for me and the program chief engineers to be the ones who are really taking action to implement those strategic directions.... I tend not to micromanage.... It’s important to set the direction and have metrics to measure it so you know it’s going the right way.” Editor’s note: The preceding article was printed in the Wichita Eagle and is reprinted here with permission.