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Sitting down with Gary Coleman, Retired Boeing Technical Fellow – Weld Engineer and Chair of the D17 Aerospace Welding Specifications Committee for the American Welding Society (AWS)
In this candid interview, Coleman shares insights on the future of welding processes, the integration of 3D printing, the challenges of working with difficult aerospace alloys and the enduring complexity of industry compliance standards like NADCAP. Join us as we explore the arc of a career dedicated to ensuring quality and safety in the skies and beyond.
Q: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you became involved in the welding industry?
“Yeah, it's pretty unique. I ended up with a track scholarship out of high school, went to a junior college in Arizona, and they had a welding program there. My mindset is I would probably be some blue-collar dude, and that's another good skill to have, right? You know, to do something. But hey, I got a welding background, figured that would work.”
While enjoying the college experience, Coleman discovered that Arizona State University offered a welding engineering program, and enrolling was a decision that sparked a future career filled with success and fueled by innovation.
After graduating from Arizona State, Coleman faced two different paths in the form of job offers — one at McDonnell Douglas in California, the other at Boeing in Washington. Choosing Boeing led to a 32-year career spanning missiles, satellites, fighter jets, and commercial airplanes. Even after retirement, he returned for consulting work, including projects on submarine parts.
Reflecting on his career, Coleman notes: “It was a very good career for me. I got to travel the world for various reasons, either to help a supplier or Auditor. I mean, because on the military and commercial side, we had suppliers from all over the world. Surprisingly as big as Boeing was, there's only a handful of us weld engineers, I got to see a lot, do a lot, worked on a lot of really cool programs. And with that was all the wonderful people I got to work with.”
Q: Where do you see the aerospace welding industry in 20 years? Do you expect many of the same welding processes to remain in use, or are newer processes beginning to replace older ones?
Coleman doesn’t anticipate radical changes in the industry anytime soon. “Now follow me out here. So aerospace is pretty much broken down into three categories. You got your airframers, your engine, and your rocket people. So, if you keep it in that mindset, nothing's really going to change in 20 years. I mean, look at the F-47. It still looked like a fighter jet, right? The engines, it’s not like we went from a piston propeller into a rocket motor. Now, if they come up with a whole new concept in engine design, you know, maybe.”
He finds the evolution of rockets more intriguing, specifically the reusability.
“The interesting thing there is now they're starting to reuse rockets, right? So, before it was like a one-time shot, kind of, well, just got a hold. Well, now you're reusing them. What is the life of the rocket? You know, I know they refurbished the motors, but there's parts in there being reused. What's the life cycle of that? Despite these advancements, he doesn’t see them steering the industry away from welding, “I don't see any big changes that would cause us to deviate from welding per se.”
Q: Are you seeing engineers begin to phase out welded assemblies due to advances in 3D printing?Or do you think welded assemblies will remain essential in future aircraft designs?
New technologies like 3D printing, he notes, complement rather than replace traditional welding. “Recently one of the rocket motors I saw had a very complex weld that was cast and welded together. And the limit of the castings made the weld extremely difficult because of the accessibility. Went to printing, they could 3D print it a little bit different, gave the welder accessibility, the welding was not the issue anymore,” Coleman says. “I don't see it being one versus the other, you know, 3D printing versus welding, but you say, hey, If you change this joint, put the joint over here or change something, we can make it easier for the welder or whether it's automated welding or not, you know, make it easy to assess, to be able to inspect it”
Ultimately, efficiency drives innovation. “I see them joining and complementing each other, not a competition,” he adds. “As a weld engineer, if I can get rid of some welds, that's going to save money in the long run.”
Q: Have you seen renewed interest in welding careers among younger generations? Or does the skilled welder gap continue to grow?
Coleman notes that interest varies by sector. “I really don't see that, and the reason being is, in the rocket business, there's a lot of welding going on. I see a lot of young weld engineers. Compared to what Boeing had, this is a completely different world.” Rocket programs “aren’t as entrenched as, say, Boeing and Lockheed. Boeing commercial aircraft, that's a 30-year aircraft. They've been designing them a certain way for 100 years. That's hard to change. Rocket guys are, hey, let's give this a try. I see a lot of younger people in that field”
As for manual welders, Coleman says the challenge of attracting younger people is still very real. “I still get people asking me, ‘Hey, can you talk to my kid?’—and now it’s, ‘Can you talk to my grandkid?’” he laughs.
He recently saw firsthand how impactful exposure can spark interest. “Case in point, I just put a class together for AWS and somebody where I live said, hey, my granddaughter is going, wants to get into welding. And so, I did a test run and gave that entire pitch. And you can see her eyes just open up like, whoa, there's a whole world out there”.
Coleman believes this shift will continue. “Technology's coming back, people are realizing, they don't have to go to university, there's the tech field, there's money to be made there. So that trend keeps up.”
Q: In your opinion, what is the hardest aerospace alloy to weld, and why?
“Pick something like Inconel 718 or something, you know, it's got propensity to crack, Aluminum, If I got an x-ray, that's extremely difficult.” “We try not to put something too difficult in a production environment, you don't want to spend your time repairing it.”
“Most difficult thing I've come across was 6061, a metal matrix, 6061. I believe it had silicon carbide particles in it. And you know, aluminum is sluggish anyway. Well, this is even worse” he adds, “you had to stick your filler rod in and stir it up as you were going along. It worked for what we were doing, but it's not a high production material you'd want to put out there.”
He adds that the engine world can be a different story. “They use way more exotic materials because of the high temperatures” he says. “But just like airframe and things like that, you stick to your basic aluminum, nickel, titanium, stainless.”
Q: What’s the most significant weld failure you’ve seen in the aerospace industry, and do you know what caused it?
“Luckily, really haven't seen anything that's catastrophic.” The best one I remember is on the 787, we had a whole new concept for a seat track design. And one of the requirements per the FAA was the seat track had to withstand a 16G crash test.”
"So, some of the earlier designs we welded up, we thought we had a good design... I want to do this 16G crash test dummy, you know, the whole weld sheared, the crash test dummies hit the wall and damaged the wall." Coleman explained.
The cause of the failure was quickly determined to be a design flaw, not necessarily a poor weld process. The team immediately changed the design.
"All right. Change the design, you know, move the weld," Coleman said. They re-tested the revised component, "And everything it held, you know, it was a good design. This is what we're going with.”
Q: Do you believe the current requirements for welder qualifications are sufficient, not sufficient, or too demanding?
“I think they’re sufficient. I mean, we have decades of ‘this is the acceptance criteria, and everyone has to meet it’. Obviously, some people that are going to be talented and don't need much training. You got people not as talented, they're going to need a lot more training. I would say it's accurate.”
Q: Do you feel that NADCAP audits are sufficient to determine the level of compliance among welding organizations?
“I do know a few primes that let NADCAP handle all their auditing. I know Boeing for sure, I don't see them giving that up”. But for Boeing Coleman says this is not the case, “look, you got the NADCAP audit. Good. That's wonderful. Now you need to make sure you're doing exactly what we require”
Coleman agreed that the intent of the program is for the NADCAP audit to be sufficient, but he pointed to the reality of major customer demands: “I think some people are still going to maintain control, make sure you do it the way, say a Boeing wants, or you got all of our Boeing spec document and you're following that.”
For Primes, NADCAP establishes a critical starting point: "We know that we know the baseline." This saves time and simplifies the search for capable suppliers. Coleman shared an example: "I've said, 'hey, I need... electron beam welding. Okay. Who's all our Nadcap approved suppliers?'... it makes it easier to say, let's deal with these people." While the supplier may not have the customer's proprietary information “they don't have all the Boeing stuff. That's our job to go in and help them”.
For suppliers, the process itself is a massive driver of internal quality improvement. G finds that "most shops that do improve, they started with having to do an Nadcap audit." He noted that discipline forces companies to establish clear, documented processes:
"Once you realize, we're asking you to have these things in place and follow them... you'll see improvements in your own company."
Gary Coleman’s journey—a distinguished 32-year career at Boeing—highlights the critical, specialized role of the welding engineer in aerospace. His insights reveal an industry that, while stable in its core processes, is continually being refined by efficiency and new technology.
Coleman anticipates that core welding processes will remain essential for airframes, engines, and rockets, though 3D printing is increasingly serving as a complementary tool to improve weld accessibility and inspection. His experience underscores that ensuring quality remains a multi-layered task: while NADCAP provides a crucial baseline for supplier competency, major Primes like Boeing will continue to demand compliance with their specific requirements. Finally, his observation about the renewed interest in welding careers—suggests that while the skilled welder gap persists, exposure and awareness can inspire the next generation to join this demanding and rewarding field. Uncompromising quality—built upon skill, strict adherence to standards, and rigorous testing—will forever remain the foundation of the aerospace industry.
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