American military industrial base--going out of business

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Boeing Co. has started selling off giant equipment from its military-jet plant in Southern California, in an unusual factory auction that will close a chapter in the region’s history as a center of U.S. aerospace manufacturing.

For more than 20 years, the plant has produced the C-17 Globemaster III, a military transport jet capable of carrying 82 tons. But Boeing is ending production at its plant in Long Beach, Calif., because of a lack of international orders after the U.S. Air Force stopped buying the plane.

The C-17 is the last big jet still assembled in Southern California, whose aerospace industry dates back more than a century and, at the height of the Cold War, was home to 15 of the 25 biggest U.S. aerospace companies, according to the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., a regional business group.

Many of those companies have merged or moved, although the area also has drawn big new names, including Elon Musk’s rocket venture Space Exploration Technologies Corp., and in 2012 still accounted for about a fifth of U.S. aerospace-industry revenue, according to consultants A.T. Kearney. Boeing also has moved some product support jobs to Long Beach as it scales back manufacturing.

Boeing plans to close its Long Beach plant this year and has tapped Heritage Global Partners Inc. to sell off the machines that make the Globemaster’s wings—which span 170 feet—its 174-foot-long fuselage and other parts.

Heritage specializes in such industrial auctions. Other offerings recently advertised on its website include laboratory equipment from biotech company Amgen Inc. and the contents of a distribution facility from clothing retailer American Eagle Outfitters Inc., including forklifts and mailroom furniture.

But David Barkoff, Heritage’s director of sales, says few sales involve machinery on the scale of the six items it is selling for Boeing in the sealed-bid auction, which began last month and ends June 23. Among the pieces is the Broetje Robotic Flexible Assembly Cell, which rivets together sections of the fuselage that are about as wide as a two-lane highway. “This is a unique sale in terms of how large these machines are and what they are used for,” he said.

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