SPOKANE, Wash., 18 Oct. 2012. Aerospace companies throughout Spokane County, Wash., and North Idaho are benefitting from “a global surge in aircraft production,” reveals Scott Maben, author of “Inland Northwest aerospace poised for takeoff” in The Spokesman-Review.
Spokane County boasts more than 80 direct and indirect suppliers for the aerospace industry and employs more than 8,000 people, say officials at Greater Spokane Inc., Spokane Washington's Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Council. Concurrently, North Idaho’s aerospace community includes three dozen companies and employs roughly 650, according to Idaho state officials.
North Idaho College in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, won a $2.97 million federal grant, under the U.S. Department of Labor’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) program, to “create an Aerospace Center of Excellence in Aviation Maintenance and Advanced Manufacturing to meet the workforce demands of the emerging aerospace industry in Idaho.”
Visit the Inland Northwest Aerospace Consortium for incentive, educational, and workforce information about the region.
Among the Inland Northwest companies serving the aerospace community (and noted in Maben’s article) are:
Associated Painters Inc., which paints and stripes planes
Quest Aircraft Co., which builds the KODIAK 10-seat single-engine turboprop airplane
Cygnus Inc., which manufactures 180,000 sheet metal parts and assemblies annually for commercial and military planes and missile programs
Triumph Composite Systems, which makes commercial and cargo floor panels, environmental control systems and ducting
United Technologies, which manufactures carbon brakes
Kaiser Aluminum Corp., which is a supplier of aluminum for aircraft makers
Titan Spring, which makes springs and wire
Unitech Composites and Structures, which delivers composite materials
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