COLUMBIA, SC When will Boeing become a wingman on the University of South Carolinas new aerospace research center?

There are signs the Boeing-USC relationship is growing, holding out the possibility of growing the states new aerospace sector.

Representatives of the Chicago-based aerospace giant, which has a newly opened 6,000-employee plant in North Charleston, have attended events for USCs new McNair Center for Aerospace Research and Innovation. The centers new director also spent a year working for the company, and the school is talking with Boeing about sharing manufacturing processes used at its plants for research.

The hope is that Boeing will become the kind of partner to the McNair Center that BMW has become to Clemson Universitys International Center for Automotive Research in Greenville. The German automaker, which built its only U.S. plant in nearby Greer, has two endowed professors and a research operation at the Clemson center.

You wait for the right time, USC president Harris Pastides said Monday. We have outstanding relationships with (Boeing). ... Im confident that, as we develop our own mission, they will be on board with us.

Boeing said it has not committed yet to conducting research or providing financial support to any S.C. colleges.

We have ongoing dialog with a number of universities throughout South Carolina, and we continue to evaluate how future support may be targeted in conjunction with the needs of the company and the particular strengths of each program, Boeing said in a statement.

The McNair Center is just getting started with its business-driven mission.

S.C. Commerce Secretary Bobby Hitt was a speaker at Mondays investiture of the centers new director, Zafer Gurdal.

We really are just at the launch pad of a great aerospace industry, Hitt said at the event. If we have the same success in the next 20 years as weve had in the last 20 years with BMW, we will revolutionize this state in so many ways. It only can be done through increased potential through education.

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USC Aerospace center hopes to land Boeing