New hangar expands prospects for AeroTEC

MOSES LAKE — There’s a new airplane hangar at the Grant County International Airport.

And at 85,000 square feet, it’s so big that even a 747 jumbo jet looks small sitting inside it.

“This is phase three of our expansion in Moses Lake,” said AeroTEC founder and CEO Lee Human, noting that this is the third hangar AeroTEC has built at the GCIA. “It’s the largest of the three, and it includes additional space for a shop, for office, engineering and plane-side support.”

“We’re very proud of it,” Human added. “It’s a big investment, obviously, for us, and huge commitment to Moses Lake.”

The new hangar will allow AeroTEC to maintain the Global Supertanker, a 747 converted to carry and disperse roughly 20,000 gallons of fire retardant to combat forest fires, as well as another 747 to be used by aircraft engine maker Rolls Royce to test out new engine technologies.

Human said it’s all part of AeroTEC’s effort to expand its business from testing to engineering, repair and manufacturing.

“So now we can do design, manufacture, actual modification and maintenance, and then the certification of whatever is needed,” Human said. “It really completes the puzzle of providing that full-service capability and, of course, gives us more footprint to do more services at the same time.”

Human hopes the modification work on the Global Supertanker, which should take “less than two months,” will also provide an opening for AeroTEC for a regular maintenance contract or even converting more 747s to firefighting roles.

“We would very much like them to stay in Moses Lake, and we could provide additional support, whether it’s helping them with their operations, or — knock on wood — help them build more copies of the Global Supertanker so that we can jointly support the needs of West Coast fire protection,” Human said.

The AeroTEC CEO noted a natural fit would be to base a plane like that in Moses Lake because the U.S. Forest Service already has a tanker base at the GCIA.

Beginning in April, Human said AeroTEC will begin an extensive, year-long process of modifying a former Qantas 747 for Rolls Royce.

“Our responsibility is to design, build and qualify this airplane so that Rolls Royce can use it as their airborne flying research laboratory for the next 15 years,” he said. “We have started to release engineering already to the manufacturing side of our company to start producing parts.”

In 2020, AeroTEC flight tested a Cessna Grand Caravan powered by an electric motor and battery system created by Everett-based MagniX (pronounced “mag-nee-eks”), an aircraft the company has converted back to a standard combustion engine and put up for sale.

“We had a great collaboration with MagniX with demonstrating to the world that this is possible, that we can fly a 100%-electric viable commercial airplane,” Human said. “It was our intention all along to buy an airplane … (and) use it for the program. Honestly, we don’t need that asset right now, so it’s on the market.”

Human also said he expects Mitsubishi SpaceJets, one of AeroTEC’s first big testing and certification program in Moses Lake, to remain in storage at the GCIA “for a while.”

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. has mothballed the company’s SpaceJets program, and shuttered the company’s U.S. aircraft subsidiary, after reporting significant losses largely due to the long-delayed passenger jet program, which was Japan’s first since the 1960s.

Human, however, remains committed to Moses Lake as a place to fly, test, repair and modify airplanes.

“Now we’re able to support up to nine airplanes of different sizes, whether it be regional jets or narrow bodies like a 737 or A-320 or wide bodies like the 747, 777X, 787, whatever that might be,” he said. “With all of that, it’s immediately attracted business and growth to ML, which I think is good for everyone.”

“We believe that ML is the best place in the world to do flight test and development,” Human added.

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