Japanese bearings maker Minebea will spend 10 billion yen over the next five years to step up production of aircraft parts at existing domestic and Thai facilities in response to rapidly growing demand for smaller planes. The company sees its aircraft parts sales growing 50% from the 47 billion yen of fiscal 2015 to 70 billion in fiscal 2020. Some 4 billion yen will be invested to refurbish the Fujisawa plant in Kanagawa Prefecture as early as this year. Space there that makes fasteners for industrial machinery will be switched over to aircraft parts, and 27 processing machines will be added. Production of landing gear parts will begin there for the first time. At the Lop Buri plant in Thailand, Minebea will put in place operations to mass-produce such items as bearings for wing flaps. It has made these overseas only at sites in the U.S. and Europe, where they are close to aircraft builders. Thai output comes in response to growing Asian demand. Minebea will invest some 6 billion yen to increase processing machinery by 60 units. Until now, Minebea has produced the bearings itself and outsourced the assembly into parts. It will bring assembly in-house to control costs and reap economies of scale. Airbus projects the global aircraft market through 2035 at 33,000-plus planes, while Boeing sees it at 39,600. Around 70% is expected to be for smaller craft from budget carriers.