Rockford Area Aerospace Network (Booth 4835) has come to the NBAA show seeking to attract more business aviation companies to join the growing aerospace cluster being formed around the northern Illinois city. Already some 250 aviation and aerospace firms have facilities in the Rockford region, which is about 60 miles northwest of Chicago and close to the southern Wisconsin border. These include companies such as UTC Aerospace, GE Aviation, Esterline, AAR and B/E Aerospace.
According to Carrie Zethmayr, executive director of trade and investment with the Rockford Area Economic Development Council, the main areas of expertise drawn together around Rockford are electrical power generation systems, engine manufacturing and actuation systems. There is also a strong metal manufacturing tradition in the area.
“We have a high concentration of people employed in manufacturing [about 20 percent of the local workforce] and this is twice the national average,” Zethmayr told AIN. Specifically, there is also a lot of automobile manufacturing in the area and Rockford officials maintain that this bolsters the skills available to aviation employers.
Unlike some areas that seek to attract aviation investment, Rockford does not market itself primarily in terms of low business costs. “We are mainly positioning ourselves as a high-value provider for advanced technology businesses and we can also offer unbeatable logistics [in terms of transportation networks, for example],” Zethmayr added.
One of these transportation logistics assets is Chicago Rockford International Airport. Among the new aviation investments at the site is a new 200,000-sq-ft maintenance hangar being built by the AAR Group. It will employ around 500 people when it opens in early 2016.
Education is another important part of the Rockford region’s aviation portfolio. The state-funded Rock Valley College has built a 40,000-sq-ft facility for training aircraft maintenance technicians. One local high school provides an academy program focused on aerospace skills, and participating students spend a quarter of their tuition time on this subject. High school juniors can start taking aerospace classes at the local community college to get a jump-start on an associate’s degree in engineering.
