COVER STORY
8
MANUFACTURING ON THE
RISE IN THE REGION
TCBusiness.com
PIPER AIRCRAFT
A worker assembles a part that will become a wing of a Piper Aircraft plane made in Vero Beach. Piper is the largest manufacturing employer on the Treasure Coast.
Revenue and employees to grow rapidly
over next several years
For 38 years, Kay Robinson has assembled
parts that become wings, doors and
center sections for Boeing jets, and she
cannot think of doing anything else.
She knows she doesn’t want to retire
anytime soon. Robinson says a woman
her age doesn’t give out her age. Still, she
acknowledges she’s past the time when
most people retire. She found what it
would be like to be retired when she had
a bunch of earned hours to burn before
the end of last year. So, she stayed at home
in Fort Pierce. And got bored out of her
gourd.
“I hated it,” Robinson says. “I need people
around. I need something to do. I could
never think of not building a floor beam.”
So, Robinson was happy to report for
her first shift in 2019 at Triumph Aerospace
Structures in Stuart, putting together parts
that become floor beams of Boeing 767
jets. She is a team leader on floor beams
in a factory that makes a variety of plane
assemblies including flaps, several types >>
BY BERNIE WOODALL
/TCBusiness.com