Jenny MarderWide-eyed and awestruck, 10-year-old Chester Harris...

Jenny Marder

Wide-eyed and awestruck, 10-year-old Chester Harris stared up at the

X-40A, an unmanned space plane jointly created by Boeing and the Air

Force.

“I think this place is the coolest place I’ve ever been to,”

Chester said, pointing to the spacecraft on display in front of him.

“It’s just so cool. All this stuff that can fly.”

Chester’s mother, Patricia Harris, was one of thousands of Boeing

employees who took their families on a rare tour of the 240-acre

Boeing Huntington Beach complex on Saturday afternoon. The open house

for employees also featured a blues band and models of spacecraft,

aircraft and military transport vehicles.

The occasion: Boeing Huntington Beach’s 40th birthday.

The Boeing Huntington Beach plant was dedicated by former

President Lyndon B. Johnson on Nov. 14, 1963. Initial use of the

facility included engineering and administration, production,

research, development, space simulations and test laboratories. When

the site opened, with nine buildings, it was valued at $25 million.

In its inception, Boeing was best known for its work on the Apollo

11 spacecraft, which carried the first human beings to the moon. The

upper stage of Apollo 11 was built at the Huntington Beach plant.

Over the years, the plant expanded including programs such as the

delta rockets, the space shuttle and the international space station.

A windstorm of changes, however, have blown through the Surf City

site in the past five years. Most manufacturing work has been moved

out of the Huntington Beach facility to Boeing sites in Alabama and

Texas and the primary focus for the Huntington Beach site has shifted

to research and development.

“It’s not the big manufacturing plant it was years ago,” Boeing

spokesman Erik Simonsen said. “We’ve moved away from just rockets and

spacecraft to other things Boeing is doing now.”

The plant, which employs 6,500 people, has branched out to include

future combat systems, Air Force space systems and advanced research

and development.

“All manufacturing is cheaper to do back East,” said Keith

Gartenlaub, a system administrator at the Boeing site.

Spirits reached an all-time low several years ago when rumors that

the plant’s days were numbered spread like wildfire through the

complex.

But Simonsen said that the future of the site couldn’t be more

secure.

“It’s expanding,” Simonsen said. “They expect 1,000 more people

there in a year.”

There was little indication of low morale or job instability at

Saturday’s open house as employees led husbands, wives and children

proudly from building to building.

“There’s an excitement in the air,” said Teri Cocco, Boeing’s

community involvement coordinator and organizer of the event. “It’s

the touchy-feely I was looking for. People really appreciate being

able to bring their families where they work.”

Former astronaut Bob Springer signed autographs by the cafeteria

door, while children climbed inside an assault Hummer vehicle or

gazed at models of a Mars Rover and a Lunar Rover, spacecraft

designed to land on Mars and the moon. Others perused a panorama of

old photos of the site, including an early 1960s shot of a developer

examining a vacant bean field at Bolsa Chica Road and Bolsa Avenue

that he hoped would soon house the newest Space Systems Center.

Gartenlaub, who works on computer-aided design for the latest

aerospace technologies, brought his girlfriend, sister-in-law and

neighbors to see his workplace.

“I’ve always wanted to work in the space industry, and this is the

place,” he said. “Boeing Huntington Beach has all of the history and

knowledge when it comes to space vehicles.”

Gartenlaub’s only complaint was that he couldn’t show his family

and friends more. The exhibits on display only scratched the surface

of the variety of work performed at the site, he said.

“Some of the stuff that I can’t show is amazing,” he said.

* JENNY MARDER covers City Hall. She can be reached at (714)

965-7173 or by e-mail at jenny.marder@latimes.com.