GE Ellisville delivers first nacelles component

The Nexcelle joint venture between Safran and GE Aviation marked a first with the shipping of its first major production component for the next generation for GE Aviation’s Passport business jet engine. The Nexcelle air inlet component is the first element to be completed at the GE Composites factory in Ellisville, Miss. The Mississippi plant transported the air inlet to GE Aviation's Peebles Test Operation facility in Ohio, where it will be integrated with a Passport engine for propulsion system icing tests in Canada. (Source: Business Wire, Dec. 11, 2013)

Central Mississippi/Golden Triangle Note: Safran has an engineering operation in Mobile, Ala.; nacelles are also produced by UTC in Foley, Ala.; and Rolls-Royce tests airline engines at an outdoor test facility at Stennis Space Center, Miss.

Native American IT firm earns Columbus AF contract

WYANDOTTE, Okla. - Bearskin Services, a 100 percent tribally-owned Small Business Administration-certified firm, and established supplier of IT and telecom products and services, announced it has secured a $5.5 million base network and telephone systems contract for the Air Force's 14th Fighter Training Wing at Columbus, Miss. Bearskin technicians will furnish comprehensive base network and telephone services to support that mission. Source: Bearskin Services, Dec. 10, 2013.

Camp Shelby to launch UV robot innovation program

The U.S. military, Department of Homeland Security and the private sector will meet at the Camp Shelby, Miss., Joint Forces Training Center near Hattiesburg on Dec. 13 to launch an innovative, multi-agency technology systems research program for unmanned vehicles (UV). JFTC-Shelby will host the collaborative program, which will be administered in conjunction with military, DHS and non-government entities. The 'Open Source Unmanned Remote and Autonomous Vehicle Systems' program will be from 12 noon to 2 p.m. at the Shelby training center, the nation's largest Reserve mobilization station. Source: Camp Shelby Public Affairs, Dec. 10, 2013.

MDA to lead business on European mission

The Mississippi Development Authority plans to lead a state-business development delegation on a 5-day trip to Western Europe at the end of March 2014. The trip is to have stop-overs in France and the UK. MDA says the trip is designed to connect state businesses with expanded trade and business relationships with the European market. The Mississippi State Trade Export Promotion program, funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration, is helping to offset some of the costs. MDA did not identify any of the state companies. Source: MDA, Dec. 9, 2013.

Southwest Airlines to jilt Jackson

Southwest Airlines will cease flying out of the Jackson-Medgar Evers International Airport in Mississippi on June 7. Company spokesman Brad Hawkins said passenger numbers were no longer financially feasible and below expectations. SWA’s merger with AirTran, which once catered to second-tier markets, is expecting to move into the nation’s largest airports. Jackson has been a Southwest destination since 1997. It is the only legacy airport SWA is leaving, but the airline will also cease servicing Key West, Fla., and Branson, Mo., both previously served by AirTrain, in June. No other current Southwest destinations are slated for closure. SWA’s 37 Jackson airport workers will be offered jobs elsewhere with SWA. Delta, American [likely to merge next week with U.S. Air] and United remain the only airlines serving Jackson. Source: Mississippi Business Journal business blog, Dec. 6, 2013.

MSU/USM partner basic econ workshop

The University of Southern Mississippi’s Trent Lott National Center, in partnership with the Stennis Institute at Mississippi State University, will host its first workshops on basic community economic development for elected officials on both campuses at Hattiesburg and Starkville Dec. 11 and Dec. 18 respectively. The workshops will focus on the roles of elected officials. Key topics include: trends, infrastructure development, revitalization, financing, planning and partnership development in creating employment opportunities. Source: Hattiesburg American, Dec. 3, 2013.

Students encouraged to join NASA’s Rover Challenge

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has issued an engineering-design challenge to high school and college students to create a space-exploration vehicle that can travel across simulated other-word surfaces. The Human Exploration Rover Challenge is a more complex follow-up to NASA’s Great Moonbuggy Race. Competition registration closes Feb. 7 for American student-teams. The competition is slated for April 10-12 at the U.S. Space and Rocket in Huntsville, Ala., home to the U.S. Space Camp. Sponsors will award prizes for the winners. Source: NASA Press Release, Nov. 29, 2013.

MRS gets $10M Stennis contract

The Mississippi Research Consortium was awarded a $10 million contract to provide engineering and scientific research to NASA, other government agencies and various tenants at Stennis Space Center, Miss. Areas of work include rocket propulsion testing research and development, project formulation, new business development, remote sensing applications, ecosystem integration and analysis, coastal community resiliency and sustainable development, water quality, climate change and variability effects on regional ecosystems, acoustics, image analysis, geographic information systems, computational fluid dynamics, polymers/ceramics, electron microscopy, micro-electromechanical systems, magneto hydrodynamics, diagnostics instrumentation, and other associated scientific, computational and engineering areas. The consortium is a collaboration of Jackson State University, Mississippi State University, University of Southern Mississippi and University of Mississippi. The period of performance shall be a one-year base period with four one-year options through Nov. 30, 2018. (Source: FBO, 11/27/13)

DoD seeks plan to shutter U.S. commissaries: 4 in Mississippi

The Defense Commissary Agency has allegedly been asked to come up with a plan to close all 178 commissaries in the United States - about 67 percent of its entire fleet of stores, according to an unnamed resale community source detailing information about a meeting between the Joint Staff and Pentagon comptroller office representatives. The source told Navy Times that the meeting was held in early November and was part of FY-15 defense budget requests being worked up for February submission. DeCA also operates 70 overseas stores. DeCA negotiates lower prices for products based on volume. Closing commissaries would lead to higher prices and a degraded benefit in remaining stores, said Tom Gordy, president of the Armed Forces Marketing Council that represents more than 330 manufacturers who sell products at commissaries and exchanges. Gordy presented written testimony Wednesday to the House Armed Services Committee’s military personnel panel. He says discussion of closing commissaries didn’t come up at the panel meeting, but wrote that closing U.S. stores “would eliminate the benefit for millions of families, breaking a commitment that has been made to every service member.” He indicated in testimony that the Joint Staff allegedly had asked DeCA to look into cutting out two-thirds of its $1.4 billion annual budget. Source: Navy Times, Nov. 21, 2013.
[Central Mississippi/Golden Triangle Note: There are four DeCA commissaries located in Mississippi at Columbus AFB, Gulfport NCBC, Keesler AFB and Meridian NAS.]

Court rejects Eaton’s multi-million dollar lawsuit

In a unanimous decision Thursday, the Mississippi Supreme Court refused Eaton Corp’s request for reinstating a trades-secret lawsuit against Frisby Aerospace. Eaton had sued Frisby and six of EC’s former engineers for taking alleged company secrets to the North Carolina-based firm in 2004. The justices’ upheld the Hinds County Circuit Court’s previous ruling that Eaton sanctioned communications between one of its lawyers and the initial judge overseeing that lawsuit. Hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts were on the line between the two rival companies vying for aerospace parts contracts for Boeing's 787 Dreamliner. A countersuit claims Eaton sued to destabilize Frisby will now continue in Jackson, Miss. Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer, Nov. 21, 2013.
[Central Mississippi/Golden Triangle Note: Eaton’s Jackson, Miss., facility operates one of the most advanced aircraft hydraulic test laboratories in the world.]

Lowndes: RFPs for land-use development around CAFB

Lowndes County officials are in the midst of requesting consultant proposals to assist in the implementation of recommendations from an early 2013 Joint Land Use study regarding economic development of property around Columbus Air Force Base that is compatible with military operations. Those requests for proposals will allow the county to determine what property is suitable for development without affecting CAFB's mission. In the interim, Lowndes got a federal grant to hire a planner to update maps of the property around CAFB. The RFP deadline is Nov. 29. Source: Columbus Dispatch, Nov. 19, 2013.

Mississippi Raytheon expanding

Raytheon plans to increase the size of its Forest, Miss., manufacturing facility by more than 20,000 square feet and hire more than 150 new workers. That's according to an announcement today by Raytheon and state officials. The expansion is to support anticipated growth in airborne radar and electronic warfare markets. At 340,000 square feet, the plant already is one of the largest defense manufacturing plants in the Magnolia State. This year, the Forest plant ramped up its fighter jet radar production rates 10-fold. It also delivered more than 500 Active Electronically Scanned Array aircraft radars. In addition to fighter jet radars, the facility makes the Sentinel air defense radar, with 57 additional ones in production for the U.S. Army. (Source: Raytheon via PRNewswire, 11/11/13)

Tupelo groups wrangling over airport expenditures

The Tupelo City Council unanimously voted last week against authorizing a $1.2 million expenditure, from the Tupelo Airport Authority, to repair the taxiway and part of an old runway at the airport primarily used by Universal Asset Management, the airport’s largest tenant. The city has agreed to pay $107,000 for repairs and that UAM should pay the rest. The city contends UAM tore up the taxiway and should pay half. In response, a UAM official insinuated that without the repairs the company may move out. City Council members voiced support for the firm and were said to be willing to negotiate, but, according to Mayor Jason Shelton, the city isn’t going to respond well to ultimatums. Shelton said UAM hasn’t provided sufficient information on how the firm developed their future investment wish-list numbers – between $4 million and $7 million – and are waiting for that additional information. Source: Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, Nov. 7, 2013.

States up R&D spending

A National Science Foundation study shows state government expenditures for research and development hit $1.4 billion in fiscal year 2011, up 11 percent from the previous year. Individual state government expenditures varied widely with New York, Ohio, Florida, California and Pennsylvania accounting for 51 percent of all state government R&D. Gulf Coast states’ spending numbers included: Florida at $150.8 million, Texas $47.4 million, Alabama $19.7 million, Louisiana $9.2 million and Mississippi $7.4 million. Source: National Science Foundation, November 2013.

FAA releases drone roadmap

The Federal Aviation Administration has developed a roadmap for allowing widespread use of unmanned aircraft in the national airspace, but it will take longer than Congress wants. The FAA said that for the next several years access of robotic aircraft will be limited to permits the FAA grants on a case-by-case basis to operators who agree to procedures to reduce safety risks. Congress last year directed the FAA to grant drones widespread access by September 2015. Six sites nationwide will be chosen by FAA as test sites for the integration process. (Sources: multiple, including FAA, Bloomberg, AP, 11/07/13) UAS Roadmap; UAS Comprehensive Plan. The Gulf Coast’s I-10 corridor is heavily involved in unmanned systems. Fire Scout and Global Hawks are built in part in Moss Point, Miss., and the military uses drones in training, from hand-held types to full-scale target drones at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla.

[Central Mississippi/Golden Triangle Note: Stark Aerospace, with three divisions at Columbus’ Golden Triangle Regional Airport, makes Huron and Hunter drones; and Mississippi State’s Raspet Flight Research Laboratory is developing a UAV prototype drone for battlefield surveillance and communication capabilities for the U.S. military from its Bryan Field location.]

Miss. Supreme Court halts Eaton-Frisby aerospace lawsuit

The Mississippi Supreme Court has agreed to halt and rule on an attorney-client privilege claim within litigation reports of a 9-year accusation-filled Eaton Corp-Frisby Aerospace trade-secrets trial. The trial was to have started Nov. 4. The case involves former Eaton engineers allegedly stealing thousands of pages of proprietary aerospace-parts data and providing them to Frisby. The Mississippi high court is considering whether the reports can be declassified and whether the information in it implicates Eaton officials with knowing one of its outside attorneys tried to influence the initial Mississippi trial judge in 2004.The scheduled Nov. 4 court case in Hinds County, Miss., was a counter-claim by Frisby that the initial Eaton lawsuit’s purpose was to disrupt the North Carolina firm’s $1 billion contract with Boeing. Source: Cleveland (Ohio) Plain Dealer, Nov. 5, 2013.

Miss. firm partners in buy of fire-fighting craft

Montreal-based Bombardier, the world’s only manufacturer of both aircraft and trains, celebrated the sale of its 50th super-scooper Bombardier 415 amphibious aircraft to a partnership led by Tenax Aerospace of Ridgeland, Miss. It will be used under contract to the U.S. Forest Service beginning in December. Also, it is the first B-415 to be sold in the United States. The Bombardier contract is approximately valued at $35 million. The aircraft is a world-renowned firefighter and the only aircraft specifically built as an aerial fire-fighting aircraft. It can land on on unpaved runways, lakes, rivers and seas, which enables rapid attacks in extinguishing and containing fires. Source: Bombardier, Nov. 3, 2013.

L3 jobs at Columbus AFB

L3 Communications is looking for a senior Non-Destructive Inspection (NDI) specialist and a Corrosion Control Worker for work at Columbus (Miss.) Air Force Base. The senior NDI specialist uses predetermined methods, operations, setups and prescribed specifications to inspect visually in-process and completed products such as electronic units and subsystems, precision electromechanical assemblies or mechanical units, subassemblies, structural flaws, internal defects, and missing welds. The CC worker accomplishes all actions following orders and directions of higher grade corrosion control personnel; and will strip, pre-treat and paint Aerospace Group Equipment, aircraft component and parts. Source: My Jobs and My Jobs, October 2013.

Thad Pad Expansion II Developing

Mississippi State University's vice president for research and economic development has indicated there is a growing interest and discussions regarding a second phase of expansion on about 50 acres with the Thad Cochran Research, Technology and Economic Development Park. The results of the discussions may culminate into new partnerships in 2014. VP David Shaw says those discussions have been with at least two unnamed organizations about development at the park. The Phase II premium-space expansion – expected to be more densely configured - will focus on a tract of land roughly 50 acres near a facility housing II-VI (pronounced "two-six") Inc., a high tech manufacturer based in Pennsylvania. Coupled with other current projects, Shaw says the Golden Triangle - Starkville, Oktibbeha County and MSU - will begin to start reaping a resurgence of economic benefits within the next 10 years. Source: Columbus Dispatch, Nov. 1, 2013.

Contract: L3, $22M

L3 Communications Corp., Systems Field Support, Madison Miss., has been awarded an estimated $22,049,546 modification (P00025) to exercise option year three of the firm-fixed-price and cost-reimbursement contract (FA8106-11-D-0002) for C-12 contractor logistics support. Work will be performed worldwide at 19 sites to support C-12 aircraft for Pacific Air Forces, Air Force Material Command, Defense Intelligence Agency and Defense Security Cooperation Agency, consisting of maintenance, repair and support functions. The work is expected to be performed until Oct. 31, 2014. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center/WLKLC, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 11/01/13)