Space Explored by Seth Kurkowski | Jun 10 2023
In a week of not great news for The Boeing Company, a lawsuit has been opened up against them by a smaller specialty aerospace company claiming Boeing stole trade secrets. While this is just an accusation, the plaintiffs believe they have a strong case.
What is Boeing accused of?
Wilson Aerospace, a small, family-owned business in Colorado, claims that Boeing stole intellectual property from them when they worked together between 2014 and 2016. Wilson creates specialty equipment for the aerospace industry, and central to this lawsuit is the company’s Fluid Fitting Torque Device or FFTD. This device can secure fittings in hard-to-reach places like inside spacecraft and rockets.
Wilson claims that Boeing stole designs and then counterfeited its own version of the FFTD for use on NASA’s Space Launch System under the protection of non-disclosure and propriety information agreements. According to Wilson, Boeing could not attach the four RS-25 engines to the SLS core stage without their FFTD device.
Boeing supposedly produced counterfeited FFTD for the International Space Station as well. Wilson claims that the counterfeited FFTDs were inferior to theirs, and Boeing teams lacked the knowledge for proper use, leading to leaks on the ISS and SLS rocket.
More:
https://spaceexplored.com/2023/06/10/boeing-sued-over-potential-ip-theft-of-unique-iss-and-sls-tools/
