Seattle's bustling business climate was appealing to The Insitu Group Inc. So much so that the aerospace company nearly left the comfort of its headquarters in the Columbia River city of Bingen.

The aerospace company, which was founded nearly a decade ago, has been an economic and business development darling for Bingen: It built a 25,000-square-foot facility in the city, and about one-third of its employees are from that immediate area. And being in the small town benefits Insitu too. "When you're a big fish in a small pond, you get a lot of attention,"? says CEO Steve Sliwa.

Nevertheless, on the advice of one of the company's investor groups five years ago, Insitu was prepared to make the move to Seattle. Then it received a tip from The Boeing Co., one of many ways the aerospace industry behemoth has helped Insitu grow and thrive.

THE RIGHT STUFF

Insitu may have a short history, but it has already racked up a list of accomplishments that rivals that of many longer-lived Washington enterprises. The company also seems to have the right-time, right-place timing necessary for accelerated growth.

The first big company accomplishment came in 1998, when Insitu earned the distinction of building an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that could fly across the Atlantic Ocean - a feat that had not been previously achieved by anyone. That gave the company some early clout. Growth came slowly at first, however. When Sliwa joined Insitu in 2001, he was only the fourth employee, and while the company was creative and innovative in nature, it needed advice from someone experienced.

"Boeing had been aware of Insitu and what they were doing in the unmanned arena for quite some time," says Peggy Holly, Boeing ScanEagle program manager.

"They had the characteristics Boeing looks for in a company: high performance in cost, schedule and quality; sound process controls and capabilities; advanced technical solutions; technology investments; diversity; and the ability to meet market upturn demands."

Insitu signed a 15-month collaborative deal with Boeing in February 2002 to develop a ScanEagle prototype, which was based on Insitu's SeaScan miniature robotic aircraft. The ScanEagle - a 4-foot-long UAV with a 10-foot wingspan and capable of flying above an altitude of 16,000 feet - is piloted remotely to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

The partnership worked, Sliwa says, because his company was nimble and Boeing had plenty of industry contacts. Because the two companies complemented one another, in 2003 they forged a long-term, 10-year partnership, allowing the ScanEagle project to move into production and to fuel further research and development. The first major ScanEagle contract came in 2004, when Boeing sealed a deal with the U.S. Marine Corps to provide UAVs for the First Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq.

"The Marines took [the ScanEagle] to Iraq just before the battle of Fallujah,"? says Sliwa, referring to the intense attack in 2004 in which Marines recaptured the central Iraqi city. "And we ended up having a huge impact on their battle plans. Afterwards the Marines told us that they might have had about 30 percent more casualties if they hadn't had [our UAV]."?  

In 2005, on the heels of the Marine Corps agreement, Boeing then received a similar contract from the U.S. Navy, which included providing ScanEagle aircraft - in addition to communication links and ground equipment - for the Naval Expeditionary Strike Group. 

MORE PARTNERSHIP PLUSSES

Small entrepreneurial companies sometimes find that "strategic"? partnerships lack the tactical collaboration that is expected from the onset of the relationship. That is not at all true in the case of the Insitu-Boeing deal, due in part to the fact that both parties didn't approach the deal with urgency.