Boeing’s largest autonomous systems development program outside the USA will soon call Queensland home, creating 131 jobs, reports the state government and Boeing.

The aim of the three-year project is to increase independent operation of sea and air vehicles to create a product that can be exported to the worldwide market.

In March this year, Boeing increased their Australia-wide research team to 80, up from 35. In a first for Boeing in the Asia-Pacific region, one of the research sites is co-located at the University of Queensland which aims to embed researches within the tertiary environment to bring together the business and academia world.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is behind the project. “The 131 jobs that will come with this autonomous vehicles program will grow Boeing’s Queensland workforce– and these are truly jobs of the future.

“Boeing has a proven track record of working with innovative Queensland businesses, a relationship that supports the growth of highly-skilled jobs under this new program.”

Technology that Boeing has created/working towards includes; ‘resin-infused carbon fibre components’ that lead to aircraft and other structures being lighter with better efficiency to manufacture, ‘advanced robots’ which will create robots of the future, autonomous systems that sense and avoid items in the air, and ‘virtual and augmented reality technology’ that is beneficial for training airport pilots and the forthcoming CST-100 Starliner pilots.

Minister for Innovation Kate Jones said the announcement puts the aerospace industry in Queensland on the map. The program puts “Queensland proponents and suppliers in the box seat to take advantage of emerging opportunities in the autonomous systems industry, especially as 30 per cent of Australia’s drone business is already based here.”

This is one of nine major projects that the Advance Queensland Industry Attraction Fund (AQIAF) is supporting. Over the next five years, the nine projects will generate more the 580 jobs and more than $260 million in capital expenditure for the state. 

Hannah Schuhmann said the increasing business activity in Queensland by a multitude of global companies including Boeing, has been one of the catalysts for increased property values in the state. Not surprisingly, Brisbane has broken into the list of 100 global cities with the highest property price growth.