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Production lines are humming at Boeing's helicopter factory in Ridley Park

Times are flush at the Boeing Co. rotorcraft factory in Ridley Park. After a decade-long expansion of the U.S. defense budget and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, helicopter orders and employment are up. The sprawling plant south of Philadelphia International Airport on I-95 expects new orders for Chinook and V-22 Osprey helicopters through 2019.

Times are flush at the Boeing Co. rotorcraft factory in Ridley Park.

After a decade-long expansion of the U.S. defense budget and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, helicopter orders and employment are up. The sprawling plant south of Philadelphia International Airport on I-95 expects new orders for Chinook and V-22 Osprey helicopters through 2019.

Boeing recently spent $130 million to modernize and expand its Chinook operation and step up production of the large troop transport helicopter used by U.S. forces and governments around the world, and for humanitarian relief.

As the rate of aircraft manufacturing has ramped up - five Chinooks and three V-22 Ospreys each month - employment has grown from 5,000 in 2008 to 6,200 today.

Boeing has nine international contracts to build Chinooks and anticipates its first international customer for the Osprey next year.

The Army has requested 464 Chinook aircraft, and so far 208 have been delivered. A five-year deal for the remaining 256 is in the fiscal 2013 federal budget now before Congress.

Boeing is building 360 V-22 Ospreys for the Marine Corps and 50 for the Air Force with partner Bell Helicopter in Texas. The next phase of that multiyear contract is also in the 2013 budget.

"We are in an excellent position for solid work for both Chinook and the V-22 for the U.S. government between now and 2019," said Mark Ballew, a former Army Chinook pilot who is director of business development for the rotorcraft program.

"Regardless of who wins the election, we have put ourselves in position to get contract awards as soon as the budget is authorized in 2013."

Right now, production lines are humming. "Going forward, we are going to see a little pressure on the U.S. defense budget," said aerospace and defense analyst Peter Arment, of Sterne Agee & Leach. And that has nothing to do with the looming "fiscal cliff," the automatic across-the-board cuts in defense spending and higher taxes that will kick in next year if Congress does not act, he said.

"It's the natural compression that comes as the wars wind down. But there are certain legacy military programs, and the Chinook helicopter is one of them, that will be maintained because it's a vital part of the military helicopter installed base," Arment said.

Whether the occupant of the White House after the election will have a direct impact on the Boeing plant here is a matter of conjecture.

President Obama wants to cut defense spending and shift dollars to other priorities. Mitt Romney promises a military buildup, with the goal of spending 4 percent of the gross domestic product annually on defense, which over 10 years would yield "$2 trillion in additional military spending that the military hasn't asked for," Obama said.

The union representing 2,000 production and maintenance workers at Boeing supports the reelection of Obama. "He saved the auto industry," said Chris Owens, a 26-year Boeing employee and president of UAW Local 1069.

"Without his bailout for the autoworkers, we might not even have a UAW. Do I agree that we need defense cuts? Well, no," Owens said. "I think we still need a strong defense and I think the president believes that, too."

Others suggest that there is a consequence for Boeing, no matter who is elected.

"In a declining defense budget, the helicopter industry has historically taken it on the chin," said John Piasecki, chief executive officer of Piasecki Aircraft Corp., a research and development firm in Essington.

Beyond that, the U.S. government helps fund development of "new platforms" which are next-generation helicopters that will go faster, carry more weight, and have longer range than any aircraft today, Piasecki said. "In our business 2019 is tomorrow because it takes 25 years to develop and field a new product in the defense industry."

Piasecki's father, Frank, pioneered the tandem rotor helicopter design and, with a University of Pennsylvania classmate, started PV Engineering Forum, whose name was changed to Piasecki Helicopter Corp. in 1946, and later, after Piasecki left, to Vertol Aircraft Corp., which Boeing acquired in 1960.

"There are cycles in our industry, and we are entering a descent phase of a major production boom," Piasecki said. "The point is: The end is in sight."

The crunch for Boeing, and other rotorcraft makers, will come in 2020 when current U.S. military contracts end and the next-generation transport helicopters will not be ready to replace them.

Current estimates for fielding that next-generation technology is 2034, said Piasecki, whose company has teamed with Boeing to figure out what that new product will be.

To bridge the gap, Boeing is studying ways to enhance the current Chinook, put in stronger engines and transmissions, and improve the wing, gear and fuel system to get additional range.

"The Army is saying those aircraft are going to fly until 2045 or 2050," Ballew said. "We have to do something to them in the 2020s to get them flyable and operational until that time period."

Chinooks out in the field would come back to Ridley Park for refurbishment.

"We're looking right now at how we make improvements and advancement to the V-22, as well," Ballew said.

Workers at Boeing have seen ups and downs before.

A high point was the 1960s, when the workforce swelled to 13,000 to 14,000 and the plant turned out one Chinook a day during the Vietnam War.

The low point came in April 2003, when employment dropped to 4,300. "We were down to nine aircraft that year," said Tony Martin, director of operations for the Chinook H-47 program. "There were no wars. The demand wasn't out there. Once we introduced a new air frame, the customer, the U.S. Army, started coming back."

Kevin MacDonald, 41, who spent a decade in the Air Force before landing his "dream job" as an aircraft technician at Boeing, said he doesn't worry about the future "because we've got a great program here."

"I think people are going to line up out this front gate, waiting for their turn to buy one of these airplanes," said the Ridley Township native, whose grandmother worked at Boeing until 1984.

David Coe, 44, an aircraft inspector, said he had "been blessed" to work 25 years for Boeing.

"I've been through it all. I have been laid off," he said. Coe worries about the future because he has an infant son and "another mouth to feed. I would feel a little more comfortable after we sign another multiyear contract.

"Of course, during every presidential election, each individual has their set of circumstances and budgets to go by," Coe said. "I know we spend a lot of money, and we have to make cuts somewhere."

Frank Stricker, 56, a Boeing employee almost 29 years, started in fabrication in 1984. When Boeing got out of that business, he said, his employer trained him to become an aircraft technician.

"When I first got here, I wasn't here two weeks and they started talking about layoffs," Stricker recalled. "Anything working with the government, you can never plan ahead. Now, the projections are for maybe five to seven years. Where can you get that anywhere in today's world? That's great."

See a photo slideshow of Boeing's helicopter plant in Ridley Park by going to philly.com/businessEndText