News
Alabama cities look for aerospace growth at Paris Air Show
PARIS – With Alabama emerging as the next hub of passenger jet assembly, officials from cities as different as Birmingham and Enterprise traveled to this week’s Paris Air Show to position their communities for potential growth in the aerospace sector. Steve Pelham, chief of staff to Alabama Lt. Governor Kay Ivey, remembers the arc of…
Marshall engineers 3-D print copper rocket part in NASA milestone
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – NASA engineers at Alabama’s Marshall Space Flight Center have produced the first full-scale, copper rocket part using additive manufacturing – a milestone for aerospace 3-D printing. The part is a combustion chamber liner that must operate at extreme conditions during flight. In fact, temperatures on the inside of the paper-thin copper liner…
Airbus Alabama workforce gets hands-on training in Europe (video)
The first fuselage sections for Airbus’ maiden “Made in America” aircraft have arrived in Alabama, but the company’s workforce has been working quietly for months getting ready to launch assembly at Airbus’ new, $600 million facility in Mobile. Airbus reports that more than 100 members of its Alabama workforce have spent up to six months…
Safran company to open facility at Mobile Aeroplex
Messier-Bugatti-Dowty, a major provider of aircraft landing and braking systems, will open an office and workshop at the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley, the industrial complex that’s the U.S. home of Airbus. Messier-Buggatti-Dowty is a member of the France-based Safran family of aerospace companies, which already has a presence at the Aeroplex. Messier-Bugatti-Dowty will open an…
RMCI to open U.K. office as Alabama company targets global growth
PARIS – Huntsville-based RMCI Inc., a company specializing in helicopter health monitoring technology and analysis, announced plans at the Paris Air Show today to open an office in the United Kingdom to help meet growing demand for its products and services. RMCI Chief Executive Ken Speaks said the office in Derbyshire, England, will make it…
Paris Air Show 2015: Aircraft on display (photo gallery)
PARIS — The Paris Air Show is the world’s oldest and largest aerospace industry event, driving deals worth billions of dollars. Held every other year since 1909, the Paris Air Show attracts visitors, industry professionals, merchants, customers and press from around the world. The last installment, the 2013 show, saw more than 2,000 companies hold…
Alabama aims to expand role in aerospace supply chain
DECATUR, Alabama – Companies that produce carbon fiber and specialty alloys for aircraft manufacturers have invested more than $1.7 billion in their Alabama facilities, making the state a growing player in the aerospace supply chain. Toray, the largest producer of polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-based carbon fibers, operates a Decatur plant that houses one of the world’s biggest…
Twin entrepreneurs behind RadioBro target mini-satellite, aviation opportunities
PARIS — Twin brothers Mark and Eric Becnel built their first mini-satellite while attending the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Now 27, they operate a company that has developed communications radios for small spacecraft and a data logging kit for aircraft testing that will be on exhibit at the Paris Air Show. “We plan to stay…
MAAS Aviation teams for $39 million paint hangar project at Mobile Aeroplex
Mobile Airport Authority said today that it has teamed with MAAS Aviation to construct a new $39 million twin bay paint facility at the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley, broadening the capabilities of the industrial complex that’s home to Airbus’ first U.S. assembly center. The new project is in addition to the MAAS paint facility that…
Region positioned for growth, says Aerospace Alliance chairman
PARIS – The chairman of The Aerospace Alliance says Alabama and its Gulf Coast neighbors stand to benefit from a growing commercial aviation sector symbolized by the Airbus manufacturing facility that’s about to open in Mobile. The Alliance is a partnership meant to foster cooperation between four Southeastern states that have targeted expansion and growth…