Golden Triangle students impress NASA engineers

A pair of experienced NASA engineers, both of whom are leaders of the current Curiosity rover mission to Mars, were impressed Tuesday at Mississippi State University with a showcase of robotic creations of Golden Triangle students at the Mississippi Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology (BEST) program. Source: WTVA-TV [Tupelo-Columbus, Miss.] Jan. 29, 2013.

Columbus’ Aurora opens new aerospace facility

Aurora Flight Services of Columbus, Miss., officially opened its new 30,000 square foot commercial aerospace composites manufacturing operations Jan. 7 at the Golden Triangle Regional Airport. The new facility will allow AFS to increase operations and represents an investment of $17 million and 250 new jobs. The Mississippi Development Authority provided a loan to Lowndes County for the construction. Source: Mississippi Governor’s Office, Jan. 7, 2012.

Link on the move for Golden Triangle

Mississippi’s Golden Triangle Development Link members met Wednesday at East Mississippi Community College to organize and tout the quickly-moving benefits of the regional partnership and spread its thinking globally, according to Link CEO Joe Higgins. Former Mississippi State University President Dr. Mac Portera told attendees that technology would be the new currency in the future and that the aerospace and automotive industries – which he expects the current 70-30 percent mechanical-technology base be reversed in five years -- are ripe for growth in the state. Source: Columbus [Miss.] Dispatch, Dec. 20, 2012.

Governor reaffirms support for aviation industry

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, speaking at a General Electric Aviation Suppliers Symposium on Tuesday at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, reaffirmed the state’s commitment to the aerospace industry and continuing efforts to educate its citizenry as a work-force supplier. GE Aviation has two aerospace industry plants in Mississippi, the second of which is at Ellisville and is projected to open in 2013. The new facility will join GEA’s Batesville factory, which opened in 2008 and manufactures advanced composite components for aircraft engines and systems. GE Aviation expects to invest $150 million in the two locations by the end of the decade. Source: University of Mississippi, Dec. 4, 2012.

MSU aerospace team to compete in NASA launch initiative

A team of Mississippi State University students will join organizers of the 7th annual NASA University Student Launch Initiative (USLI) – along with Vanderbilt and other American universities’ aerospace inventions – to soar over the Marshall Space Flight Center in northern Alabama on April 21. In all, 36 teams will compete for the $5,000 first-place prize to be awarded by ATK Aerospace Group of Salt Lake City. Teams will design and build high-powered rockets with working payloads capable of flying to a altitude of one mile. NASA created the rocketry challenge to encourage young people to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) related fields. Source: Vanderbilt University School of Engineering, Nov. 30, 2012.

GE Aviation buys Ohio firms

GE Aviation, the world's top producer of jet engines for commercial and military aircraft with manufacturing plants in Batesville and Ellisville, Miss., has bought two suburban Cincinnati, Ohio, manufacturing technologies’ firms that make lightweight parts for unmanned aerial vehicles to hip replacement prototypes in the medical-business world. Morris Technologies and its sister firm, Rapid Quality Manufacturing, have been a GE Aviation, GE Power Systems and Global Research Center supplier for years. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Source: Cincinnati (Ohio) Business, Nov. 20, 2012.

Columbus plant to produce more Army helos

EADS North America was awarded a U.S. Army contract for 34 more UH-72A ‘Lakoda’ helicopters – to be built at its Columbus, Miss., plant, according to a release from the company. The contract option was for $181.8 million which would bring the total number of helicopters under contract for delivery to 312. The Army plans to buy 347 Lakotas through 2016. The Columbus plant delivers an average of five of the helicopters per month. The same production line would produce the firm’s armed Lakota derivative (AAS-72X+) for the Army’s Armed Aerial Scout helicopter program. Source: EADS North America, Nov. 14, 2012.

National labs gather with Mississippi’s researchers

‘National Lab Day’ gave three American groups and four Mississippi universities’ research teams the opportunity Thursday to learn about new pathways and collaborative efforts to advance solutions on issues such as developing an electrical grid that repairs itself to designing safer military vehicles. Officials from Oak Ridge, Argonne and Lawrence Berkeley national labs and Mississippi’s four research universities met to draw on their expertise and interaction to tackle the nation’s needs. Source: Daily Journal, Nov. 9, 2012

GTR Airport scores with passengers

Columbus’ (Miss.) Golden Triangle Regional Airport saw a 13 percent jump in its passenger numbers in October, the single highest total (8,000) in 10 years, the airport’s executive director says, likely an indicator of a strengthening to East-Central Mississippi’s economy. The airport serves northeast Mississippi and west Alabama. Source: WVTA-TV Columbus, Miss., Nov. 8, 2012.

Fla. county buys Columbus-built helos

Brevard County, Fla., has bought two Columbus, Miss.-built American Eurocopter helicopters - dubbed the ‘Squirrel’ - that it plans to utilize for mosquito control, firefighting and herbicide application. Brevard has been experiencing a 250 percent increase in mosquito breeding over the past two years. The AS350 AStar aircraft are scheduled for delivery in July 2013. Source: Helicopter Association International, Oct. 31, 2012.

L-3 garners $34.6M aviation maintenance contract

L-3 Communications Vertex Aerospace of Madison, Miss., was awarded a $34,689,207 contract Oct. 26 for maintenance support services for T-1A, T-6A, and T-38C aircraft at Columbus AFB, Miss. Work is expected to be completed by Sept. 29, 2019. Source: Defense Department, Oct. 26, 2012.

Golden Triangle firms may bid on AF helo

The Air Force has issued a request for proposals for 112 new Combat Rescue Helicopter and interested firms – based on a September industry sign-up sheet – include AgustaWestland, Boeing, Dayton, GE Aviation, L-3 Communications, Lockheed Maritn, Northrop Grumman, Sikorsky and EADS North American’s American Eurocopter, which makes SAR and medical helicopters at its Columbus, Miss., plant. However, money-crunchers at the Pentagon have capped the Jan. 3 due date for bids at $6.8 billion which may cause firms to think twice because of past failures in the bidding process. Source: Defense News, Oct. 28, 2012.     

Research park not in jeopardy, MSU official says

Mississippi State University’s vice president for Research and Economic Development claims that the closure of one firm from the Thad Cochran Research Park in Starkville isn’t an indication that the entire aerospace research park is in jeopardy. However, the VP’s concern presently is how the closure affects MSU, which owns some of the technology developed by SemiSouth; and reaching an agreement that the university may be able to retain some of those employees. Source: Columbus (Miss.) Dispatch, Oct. 23, 2012.

Research park not in jeopardy, MSU official says

Mississippi State University’s vice president for Research and Economic Development claims that the closure of one firm from the Thad Cochran Research Park in Starkville isn’t an indication that the entire aerospace research park is in jeopardy. However, the VP’s concern presently is how the closure affects MSU, which owns some of the technology developed by SemiSouth; and reaching an agreement that the university may be able to retain some of those employees. Source: Columbus (Miss.) Dispatch, Oct. 23, 2012.

SemiSouth’s closure costs Cali firm $60M

A California company will have to write off its $60 million investment in Mississippi’s first homegrown technology firm after the Starkville-based SemiSouth Laboratories announced last week it was closing its operation at Thad Cochran Research, Technology and Economic Development Park. A Power Integrations official says the 2010 investment in the Mississippi State University-faculty founded labs, which produces power conversion and aerospace application components, was "disappointing" but that risks are inherent in business. SemiSouth’s 90 employees will be laid off. There has been no specific date announced for closure. Source: The Associated Press, Oct. 22, 2012.

MSU-Thad Park firm closing its doors

An East Mississippi silicon carbide semiconductor company, started by current and former Mississippi State University faculty, appears to be closing its doors at the Thad Cochran Research, Technology and Economic Development Park, according to a release from MSU. SemiSouth Laboratories produces power conversion and aerospace application components. No date was given for the closure. Source: Starkville (Miss.) Daily News, Oct. 20, 2012.

EADS North America skeds media event

EADS North America’s CEO Sean O’Keefe will reveal results of the firm’s voluntary flight demonstration for the U.S. Army’s Armed Aerial Scout program at an 8 a.m. (CT) event at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., prior to the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual meeting. Earlier this month, EADS North America completed a series of high-altitude demonstrations with a pair of helicopters to showcase its AAS-72X+ rotary craft. The AAS-72X+, an armed off-shoot of the Army’s UH-72A Lakota helicopter, is to be built at the firm’s American Eurocopter facilities in Columbus, Miss. Source: Defence Professionals, Oct. 16, 2012.

GE Aviation announces Wave 1 hiring for new Ellisville plant

GE Aviation’s Ellisville, Miss., manufacturing plant is nearing completion and the firm, and Mississippi’s Governor Phil Bryant, announced Oct. 11 that a hiring process is to begin in November. The 340,000 square-foot composites manufacturing facility, located 25 miles NNE of Hattiesburg and 9 miles SSW of Laurel, will begin a first wave of hiring Nov. 5 for the production of aircraft engine components. GEA expects to hire 250 personnel within five years. Wave 1 hiring begins with production associates. Those positions will be posted Nov. 5 at the WIN Job Center in Laurel, Miss. Job hires will begin work in March. GE Aviation’s new plant is the firm’s second in Mississippi and represents a $56 million company investment. Source: Y’all Politics, Oct. 11, 2012.

Mississippi aerospace firm announces layoffs

A central Mississippi aerospace firm with 2012 defense contracts awarded in excess of $275 million is reducing the size of its Systems Field Support staff facilities in Madison, north of Jackson, by nearly 30 employs. L-3 Communications Vertex Aerospace is basing that decision on defense budgets. L-3 Vertex is a provider of a broad range of electronic systems used on military and commercial aircraft. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of L-3 Communications which has 11,000 employees at 300 locations worldwide. Source: WBLT-TV, Tupelo, Miss., Oct. 9, 2012. 

Raytheon's Forest plant earns top billing on DoD contract

Raytheon’s Forest, Miss., plant will receive 66 percent of work on a Defense Department contract worth more than $15.8 million, along with Space and Airborne Systems’ Electronic Warfare Systems at Goleta, Calif., for a fixed price contract for 48 integrated multi-platform launch controllers (IMPLCs) for installation on F/A-18 aircraft. IMPLC is a component of the AN/ALE-50(V) countermeasures decoy dispensing set and the Integrated Defensive Electronics Countermeasure System. The majority of the work will be in Mississippi; but other aspects will be performed in California (25 percent), and Nashua, N.H. (9 percent), and is expected to be completed in January 2014. Contract funds in the amount of $7,881,260 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity. Source: Defense Department.