Vought Hires Tharp as General Manager, Nashville Site

NASHVILLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Vought Aircraft Industries, Inc. announced it has hired Daniel E. Tharp as general manager of its manufacturing site here. Tharp joins Vought today and reports to Dennis Orzel, vice president of manufacturing operations.

“He brings a broad range of pertinent industry experience to Vought, with a proven track record in manufacturing management, cost containment and quality improvement.”

Tharp is responsible for all operations and services at the company’s Nashville facility. The site produces large aircraft parts such as wings and tail sections for Airbus, Gulfstream, and Lockheed Martin.

For the past 16 years, Tharp worked for Bombardier Aerospace in Wichita, Kan., where his most recent assignment was business unit leader of Aero Structures. Tharp served in that position since 2004 and was responsible for all manufacturing operations, plant engineering, environmental health and safety, industrial engineering, tooling and procurement activity. The plant he managed produced structural assemblies and detail parts for mid-sized business jets.

Tharp served as the site champion of continuous improvement at Bombardier, leading the deployment of Lean manufacturing, Six Sigma and process-based leadership.

“Dan is a perfect fit for our organization,” said Orzel. “He brings a broad range of pertinent industry experience to Vought, with a proven track record in manufacturing management, cost containment and quality improvement.”

Tharp joined Bombardier Aerospace in 1990 in a research and development area as a designer. In 1995 he was named engineering manager for the Learjet Model 45 aircraft and then served as the program’s director of operations from 1997 to 2000. Prior to leading the Aero Structures unit, he spent four years as director of operations engineering and was responsible for managing a multi-functional engineering design team.

He began his career in 1981 as a mechanical designer for B&D Instruments Valley Center in Kansas, a company that grew to be one of the world’s largest suppliers of air data systems.

Tharp, 51, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in management from Friends University in Wichita. He also is a graduate of Wichita Business and Technical College, with a diploma in mechanical design and drafting.

Vought Aircraft Industries, Inc. (www.voughtaircraft.com) is one of the world's largest independent suppliers of aerostructures. Headquartered in Dallas, the company designs and manufactures major airframe structures such as wings, fuselage subassemblies, empennages, nacelles and other components for prime manufacturers of aircraft. Vought has annual sales in excess of $1.3 billion and about 6,000 employees in nine U.S. locations.

Photo available at: http://www.voughtaircraft.com