Future of aviation discussed at Flightpath presentation

MOSES LAKE — Central Washington has a lot to offer aviation and aerospace businesses, but workforce development and the state’s business climate are causing some challenges. The future of aviation in Washington and the Columbia Basin in particular was one of the topics of discussion at a daylong aviation presentation at the Port of Moses Lake.  

The “Flightpath” program was sponsored by the Washington Department of Commerce and is one of three scheduled in airports around the state.  

Aviation has a long history in Washington, as Cory Ertel, senior manager of government operations for the Boeing Corporation, pointed out. 

“We’ve been around, as of next month, 110 years,” Ertel said.  

As a result, said Justin Morigeau, president of AeroTEC, generations of Washington families have a connection to aviation.  

“I was raised on Boeing paychecks,” he said. “My parents were raised on Boeing paychecks, and there’s deep, deep lineage there that’s very important to me and my family, and I’m passing that down to my kids.” 

But, said Tommy Gantz, business development manager for TLG Aerospace, aviation requires a specialized workforce, and those employees are in high demand elsewhere. 

“Typically, with the type of work we do, we need a very, very highly skilled workforce,” she said. “We're not in a position to take someone and train them from the grounds up on loads and flutter. It's very, very specialized. If you're not getting them coming out of college with that level of technical expertise, and then the area that they're residing in doesn't have a cost of living that's sustainable, that obviously complicates the workforce picture.”  

Morigeau said the industry should work to heighten interest among young people. 

“You’ve got to invest in the kids, you’ve got to make aerospace interesting,” he said. “Those sparks are what eventually gets people like you sitting in the seat right now. If that spark’s not there, guys, this room in 20 years might be empty.” 

Morigeau said state officials need to look at regulations and its effect on business development. 

“We need to make it less restrictive to operate in this state,” he said.  

Gantz cited the case of an aviation customer who wanted to build in Washington. 

“It was going to take them longer to get the permitting to begin developing the infrastructure for what they had than it would have taken them to develop the aircraft,” she said. “I've heard of a number of businesses (where) the permitting processes for commercial development and expansion have been so prohibitive, they haven't been able to achieve that here.” 

Aviation has been important to Grant County since training bases were established in World War II, and Morigeau said the Port of Moses Lake has some advantages.  

“Our goal is to help our clients get their product to market as fast as possible, so we act as an extension of their team,” Morigeau said. “They have an idea, they have a design, a concept, they bring that to us; we do the full design integration, and we go test that. What makes Moses Lake particularly great for that is the degrees of freedom that we have. You can take a 200-foot-long aircraft and whip it around the middle of the runway and take off again without any issue whatsoever.” 

Port officials are willing to work with customers, he said, when they are testing equipment. 

“That freedom is what enables our customers to test and try out their equipment very, very quickly, (and) it makes this area unique,” Morigeau said. “If we try to do that in Seattle, that’s going to be very difficult.” 

Gantz and Michael Toberman, program manager for magniX, said the port’s flexibility makes it possible for their businesses and their customers to carry out research and experimentation. 

“Many of the projects we were on from the design and analysis side end up having a lot of the flight test elements done here,” Gantz said.  

Toberman said magniX is researching electric and hybrid aircraft engines and battery technology, since that’s the way the industry is trending.