An aerospace company has chosen Elizabethtown in Bladen County as the site of its new manufacturing facility, which will be the only one in the country to produce a type of personal aircraft.
Moore County-based Sovereign Aerospace already manages flight operations at Curtis L. Brown Jr. Field Airport in Bladen County, where the company’s facility will be the first occupant of the new Elizabethtown Corporate Airpark, according to the town’s press release.
The 36,000-square-foot plant will manufacture, service and sell the Vulcanair V1.0 aircraft, a high-wing trainer and personal aircraft that is currently only manufactured in Italy, said Ken Hadaway , chief operating officer of Sovereign.
The company plans to invest $4.15 million into the project and create 33 jobs, hiring inspectors, mechanics, technicians and administrative staff at the Bladen site, according to a Feb. 7 announcement from Gov. Roy Cooper .
The company hopes to hire mostly within the region , Hadaway said. There will also be higher-paying temporary engineering jobs for the first year or so, he said.
The median expected wage for the positions is $44,072 and the average is $56,061, compared to Bladen County’s average wage of $41,913.
The company chose Bladen County because it’s centrally located on the East Coast, said Hadaway, and the airspace there has no restrictions – making it ideal for demo flights and training with the aircraft.
Paul Mullen , chief procurement officer at Sovereign, told Carolina Public Press that the main customers for this aircraft are flight schools training airplane pilots.
Having the Port of Wilmington close by was another factor in selecting the site, as the company can receive shipped aircraft parts quickly, Mullen wrote.
Sovereign is veteran-owned and offers apprenticeships for veterans in piloting mechanics and airport management. The nearby locations of Camp Lejeune , Fort Liberty and other bases offer a good pool of possible workforce talent, according to Mullen.
The company is also in communication with Bladen Community College about training programs to develop workforce talent, said Chuck Heustess , Bladen County’s economic development director.
The corporate airpark was another benefit. The airpark is still in construction but will have room for up to four or five manufacturing facilities and larger corporate hangars, according to Heustess. The town is offering Sovereign a discount on the lease for the facility as an economic incentive, he said.
“The ability to lease a facility during startup and be able to put their capital into starting up the business rather than having to spend millions of dollars on a facility was a big deal,” Heustess said.
The state also approved incentives of $100,000 through the One North Carolina fund , which is awarded based on Sovereign meeting job creation and investment targets, according to the governor’s press release.
As for housing in mostly rural Bladen County, Elizabethtown is planning a “live, work, play” mixed-use project with a private developer that includes fixed-cost housing near the airport, said Rusty Worley , Elizabethtown’s director of planning and zoning.
The development targets household incomes of $48,000 to $110,000 and could potentially have 280 homes, he said.
The site work for that will begin in 90-120 days, Heustess said, and the aim is to alleviate the lack of available housing in the area.
Sovereign does not expect to have issues with noise pollution, Mullen wrote, as workers will mainly use air compressors and hand tools for assembly inside the facility.
Hadaway said the company hopes to be producing planes within two to three years. Construction will break ground in March, and the facility itself will likely be finished in 10 months, he said.
But the Federal Aviation Administration will then need to certify the building. Inspectors make sure the facility follows the original production steps from the Italian maker and ensure the aircraft is viable for production, he said.
To make this possible, Sovereign partnered with Ameravia, Inc. , the sole-source importer of Vulcanair aircraft in the U.S., Hadaway said. Currently, Ameravia assembles aircrafts in Miami using imported parts, but the partnership with Sovereign will allow them to move the process to a space with more open real estate and no air restrictions, Hadaway said.
Once complete, the facility in Bladen County will mean a decrease in costs for the plane, he said, as they will only need to import 30% of the parts for the plane from Italy.
“Thirty percent is a lot less than paying for 100% of the aircraft to go across and back,” Hadaway said.
It will also be easier for potential buyers to come and view the product, as well as current owners to have the aircraft serviced in Bladen County, he said.
Most Popular
Comments / 0