AeroTEC hopes to turn Moses Lake into jumbo jet repair center

MOSES LAKE — AeroTEC’s CEO sees at least part of the company’s future providing a base for the repair and maintenance of 747s right here in Moses Lake.

“There are fewer and fewer places doing that,” noted company President Lee Human, adding a number of airlines have stopped flying the iconic, globe-trotting jumbo jet.

“Airlines are all switching to other wide-body airplanes, like the 777,” Human said.

Last year, Puget Sound-based airplane maker Boeing announced it would stop production of the plane and deliver the last model in 2022.

As the 747s are retired, they will be converted to other uses — freighters, test aircraft — and Human said he wants AeroTEC to be one of the centers where that work is done.

Human on Wednesday morning led guests on a tour of the company’s newest hangar, a gargantuan 85,000 square-foot structure capable of housing a 747 and two 737s simultaneously with room to spare for offices, which he hopes will make AeroTEC a hub for the kind of repair and modification work the company is doing on the 747 Global Supertanker firefighting plane and an ex-Qantas 747 the company will convert to test new types of engine technologies for U.K. jet engine maker Rolls Royce.

“One of the world’s biggest airplanes looks kind of small in here,” Human said.

The Global Supertanker will also require a great deal more maintenance, since it is flying in ways — low to the ground, often in turbulence generated by wildfire heat, and releasing many thousands of gallons of fire retardant liquid rapidly under pressure — the 747 was never designed to do.

“This plane was designed to carry passengers from L.A. to London sipping glasses of wine at 30-something-thousand feet,” Human said. “This requires a much more rigorous maintenance and inspection program, and what normally happens once a year now is every two months.”

It’s work Human said AeroTEC is angling to get more of in the future.

The new building, which comes complete with office space, heated floors and a fire fighting system capable of filling all 85,000 square feet about eight feet deep in fire-suppressing foam, is AeroTEC’s third hangar in Moses Lake. The first, which can also house a 747, is currently host to Mitsubishi’s suspended SpaceJet program. The second is a smaller hangar AeroTEC inaugurated with a party in November 2017 — complete with a disco ball that still hangs suspended from the ceiling — where the company modifies smaller airplanes, such as the Cessna Caravan it converted to an all-electric propulsion system that flew last year.

Four Mitsubishi test aircraft — formerly known as the MRJ, or Mitsubishi Regional Jet — are still in Moses Lake, and Human said he hopes Mitsubishi will restart the program at some point. However, the company built the second and third hangars to focus on other business opportunities.

“Our master goal is to be able to do multiple programs at one time,” Human said. “The MRJ, two or three smaller programs out of this one facility, and then a wide body program.”

“Wow!” said Moses Lake City Council Member Mike Riggs, as he toured the giant hangar. “I love seeing this kind of investment in our community, and it’s exciting to think that we can serve the whole western part of the U.S. with this firefighting jet.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.