Investing in the Future of Innovation

There’s more innovation underway today at Boeing than at any time in our storied history.

Teams across the global Boeing network are transforming how we design and build our products, the systems that enable us to work more efficiently, and the work we do to improve the environmental performance of our products and internal operations.

With more than $3 billion invested annually in research and development, Boeing drives innovation that will transform aerospace and defense as we know it. Making it all possible is the ingenuity and passion Boeing employees and global partners demonstrate when developing innovations that help blaze new trails.

Our People

Engineering excellence is core to Boeing’s culture. The work we do across commercial, space, defense and services changes the world, and our engineers are at the forefront.

As a global company, in a global industry, we develop global talent, and we’re committed to attracting the very best people to join our team from across the world. Boeing is hiring across multiple engineering disciplines and at all levels of experience, from recent university graduates to more senior engineers and technical lead engineers to help drive success.

Dale Smith and his father.
Family ties fuel passion for sustainability

Dale Smith witnessed Boeing’s evolution with Sustainable Aviation Fuel and now helps advance it.

Louisa MIchael
Flash forward

Boeing’s partnership with Cambridge University provides insight into how lightning strikes may affect airplane parts.

Vann Heng
Standing up to the heat

Boeing materials scientist Vann Heng develops advanced ceramics technologies that withstand extreme environments.

Toni Cvitanic
From the pit to the factory floor

A Georgia Tech Alumnus Charts a New Path at Boeing.
 

Team working on an airplane.
Women in engineering

Working behind the scenes on NASA’s EPFD program
 

Autonomous capabilities

With more than a century of aerospace experience, we have the opportunity and responsibility to ensure the next century of flight is safer than the first. Boeing is uniquely positioned to deliver a holistic approach to automation and autonomy solutions for aerospace. Our primary interest in autonomy is to improve the safety of our products.

To address the growing challenges of sustainable, economical and accessible modes of transportation, we are re-imagining the future of flight and mobility. Boeing is focusing on emerging technologies, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) operations and the safe introduction of these vehicles into the airspace—while preserving the flying public’s confidence in air travel.

We’re investing in the future by developing technology in key areas such as Smart Factory, human-robotics collaboration and technology-enabled quality systems to enable breakthrough transformations across our production system.

Learn more about some of our autonomy applications.

Wisk
Advanced Air Mobility

Wisk is the developer of the world’s first self-flying, all-electric, four-seat eVTOL air taxi. Wisk is an independent company, backed by The Boeing Company and Kitty Hawk Corporation.

MQ-25
The MQ-25 vehicle

Built for safety and stability in one of the harshest environments on Earth, the MQ-25 is an unmanned aerial refueler, which will take off from U.S. Navy aircraft carriers and provide fuel to naval aircraft in order to help extend their range.

Greg Hyslop and Dave Calhoun
Advancing Innovation

In October 2022, Boeing and its subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences debuted the Boeing Aerospace & Autonomy Center (BAAC) at the gateway to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus.

Digital transformation

Boeing has launched a coordinated and integrated approach to all digital efforts to support our next suite of products within a digital ecosystem. The comprehensive digital environment provides stability and predictability and will allow new products, production systems including the supply chain, and the support system to be designed together.

It is an enterprise effort that will shape how we design, build, test and service products far into the future. Model-based engineering production systems will be designed with the same engineering rigor as the airplane itself. This allows us to see how a change in one affects the other and better predict the performance of both.

Our goal is to establish a new paradigm for aerospace manufacturing and ultimately flatten the traditional notion of a learning curve.

Inkjet printed livery for Alaska Airlines 737-9.
New livery printing process could offer advantages

Whale of a tail: Global Boeing teams develop first inkjet-printed, photo-realistic livery for Alaska Airlines 737-9.

Cloud partnership image.
New cloud partnerships strengthen Boeing's digital foundation

Strategic partnerships with AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft provide employees connected digital solutions.

Fabrication specialist Matthew Kingston prepares a new order at the Sheffield factory (Teresa Kuhn photo).
New software update drives future state of manufacturing

Sheffield, England, team implements digital innovation to meet higher production rates.

Producibility

Boeing’s work in producibility rests on the foundation of our decades-long investment in composite materials and manufacturing. We are embracing and investing in digital innovation and advanced manufacturing techniques to strengthen our production system, deliver on our commitment to quality and safety, and harness productivity enhancements.

We’re investing in the future by developing technology in key areas such as automation, Smart Factory, human-robotics collaboration and technology-enabled quality systems to enable breakthrough transformations across our production system.

We’re committed to leveraging technologies that reduce tedious manual tasks and capture rich, real-time data in order to improve safety and quality, while ushering in new advanced techniques, processes, tooling and systems.

Astronauts in outerspace.
Additive Manufacturing

Dr. Melissa Orme, vice president of Boeing Additive Manufacturing, shares how Boeing has been at the forefront of additive manufacturing in aerospace for decades and how Boeing continues to be a path finder for future applications.

Linerless Cryogen Tank
Linerless Cryogen Tank

In late 2021, we conducted testing with NASA on a new type of large, fully composite, linerless cryogenic fuel tank, designed and manufactured by Boeing.

Steve Fisher, 3302180
Let's Connect: Digital Thread Advances Manufacturing

Smart factories thrive on data and drive quality improvements for aerospace.

RFID Tags
Small ID tags have big impact on Boeing manufacturing

Radio frequency tags are building blocks for a Smart Factory transformation.

F15-EX
F-15 teammates become manufacturing pathfinders

Boeing’s advanced manufacturing using digital engineering is transforming how aircraft will be built in the future.

Boeing-Future-Flight-Concepts Boeing-Future-Flight-Concepts

Sustainable aviation

Boeing’s committed to partnering globally for a safe and sustainable aerospace future. This will require a multi-faceted approach, including investing in and accelerating innovation through advanced technologies as well as advancing the Boeing Cascade Climate Impact Model, or “Cascade” a dynamic modeling tool that quantifies the power of aviation’s major strategies to cut emissions. Discover Cascade here.

SFD Program
Sustainable Flight Demonstrator

In January 2023, NASA selected Boeing and its industry team  to lead the development and flight testing of a full-scale Transonic Truss-Braced Wing demonstrator airplane through the Sustainable Flight Demonstrator (SFD) program. The technologies demonstrated and tested through the SFD program will inform future designs and could lead to breakthrough aerodynamics and fuel efficiency gains.

Aerospace Together.
Sustainable Aerospace Together

The commercial aviation industry has committed to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 — now is the time for action.

Boeing Cascade3 Boeing Cascade3
Boeing Publicly Launches "Cascade" to Support Aviation's Net Zero Goal

In support of commercial aviation's path toward net zero carbon emissions, Boeing has released the Boeing Cascade Climate Impact Model for public use. Cascade is a data modeling tool that identifies the effects of a range of sustainability solutions to reduce aviation's carbon emissions.

ecoDemonstrator
‘Explorer’ airplanes to broaden ecoDemonstrator testing

Added platforms will focus on short-term technology testing aimed at industry goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Dale Smith and his father.
Family ties fuel passion for sustainability

Dale Smith witnessed Boeing’s evolution with Sustainable Aviation Fuel and now helps advance it.

Electric and hydrogen powered flight.
The science behind electric- and hydrogen-powered flight

Advanced technologies will be needed to meet industry goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.