Seventeen apprentices from across the region found themselves centre stage when Boeing bosses flew to Sheffield for a ground-breaking event to mark the construction of its first production facility in Europe.

The youngsters — all apprentices with the AMRC Training Centre — will be part of the first cohort of workers to run a new ‘state of the art’ factory making components for Boeing’s Next-Generation 737, 737 MAX and 777 aeroplanes.

Kimberly Smith, vice-president and general manager of Boeing Fabrication (www.boeing.com), told a gathering of industrial and political figures at the AMRC’s Factory 2050 of the company’s vision for what will be called ‘Boeing Sheffield’.

The new 6,200m² facility, due to open in late 2018, will produce up to 8,000 components per month that will be shipped to Portland in Oregon (USA) to be assembled into actuation systems.

The apprentices took part in the ground-breaking ceremony on the old Sheffield airport site in front of TV news cameras and photographers.

Adrian Allen, co-founder of the AMRC (www.amrc.org.uk), said this event was the culmination of a dream that one day Sheffield would be home to a Boeing production plant.

The Sheffield facility will initially employ 30 people, before growing to more than 50 employees.