Juan Carlos Ortiz – EVP Engineering Aernnova Group
6 November 2025
During September, Aernnova welcomed a Boeing engineering team of seven people from different areas (program management, design, calculation, and production engineering) for two weeks. They conducted a very thorough and detailed assessment of our engineering capabilities in order to assign us a level of delegation for future projects. In the Boeing system, engineering companies are classified into five possible levels depending on the theoretical dependence that the engineering company would have on Boeing to do its work in areas such as Design, Loads, Testing and Validation, Sustaining, Certification, Systems Integration, and Fleet Support. The highest level of delegation is 5, where the company could be totally independent from Boeing (i.e., the engine manufacturers), and after evaluation, Boeing has assigned us a Level 4, which is the highest level that structural engineering companies can aspire to.
The letter received from Boeing highlights aspects such as our extensive global development and production engineering capabilities, experience in metal and carbon structures, ability to cover the entire product life cycle, our work processes and methodologies, management systems (Teams, Stress Tools, Changes, etc.), program and technical resource management, culture of continuous improvement, and knowledge of Boeing tools, among others.
During the evaluation process, more than 40 people from Product Engineering in Miñano, Madrid, and Zamudio, and from Production Engineering in Berantevilla, Burulan, Internacional de Composites, Aernnova Compsites Illescas, and Aernnova Evora participated. Together, we were able to demonstrate to Boeing our great capabilities in performing concurrent engineering that is technically rigorous, flexible, and effective.
According to the Boeing team, there are very few engineering companies in the world with a delegation level higher than 3, so I think we should all be very proud of having achieved a level 4 with a company like Boeing.
Obviously, the next step is to try to turn this milestone into business opportunities for Aernnova, whether in engineering-only projects or, better still, in “Design & Build” projects.
Many thanks to everyone who has supported this evaluation process and congratulations to everyone at Aernnova!
