Op-ed: Wheels up for Indiana’s role in aerospace

While on the floor of the Farnborough International Airshow, the world’s largest aviation industry exhibition, it was clear to all that Indiana is propelling the future of aerospace and aviation.

From unveiling a new flight technology to the top companies exhibiting at the airshow, everything kept coming back to Indiana. When the new F-35 took the runway to showcase its vehicle liftoff for the first time, Hoosiers were center stage, having built the plane’s propulsion system at Rolls-Royce in Indianapolis.

I was privileged to join a group of 25 Hoosier business leaders, including Indiana Secretary of Commerce Victor Smith and state Sen. Brandt Hershman, R-Buck Creek, recently in Farnborough, England, where Indiana showcased its many aerospace innovations.

While at the airshow, we met with top executives from companies like Rolls-Royce, GE Aviation, Alcoa, Raytheon and Praxair, which together have announced plans to invest more than $900 million into Indiana, and to create more than 1,200 new Hoosier jobs. Rolls-Royce just celebrated 100 years in Indiana, after announcing that it is investing nearly $600 million into its Indiana research and operations, marking the company’s largest U.S. investment in a decade. That’s while GE Aviation is opening a $100 million jet engine assembly plant in Lafayette, where it will be producing the new LEAP engine.

But perhaps what impressed me most was the number of smaller aerospace companies that are also taking flight across Indiana.

Key Electronics, a manufacturer of electronic circuit card assembly, product integration and testing and repair of electronics that’s thriving in Jeffersonville. Company president and CEO Tom Hardy says that Indiana has grown into the ideal place to build his aerospace business.

“The concentration of aerospace businesses in Indiana is just right,” Hardy said. “From southern Indiana, at Key Electronics we’re in close proximity to the companies that we need to supply and have access to top engineers and technicians from the state’s top universities. It’s been a perfect recipe for our success.”

Or look at Indianapolis-based Aerotronic. While at the airshow, Aerotonic announced the launch of its unmanned, electric helicopter, which has the ability to carry multiple sensors in a fully-enclosed bay.

“Right now at Aerotronic we’re pioneering a new health management system amid other aerospace technologies to the drone space, and we’re doing it largely because of the environment for the industry here in Indiana,” said Neerav Shah, Aerotronic CEO. “Everyone at Farnborough Airshow was fascinated with our new drone, which we wouldn’t have been able to innovate and create in a place that’s tougher to do business. The workforce and the business climate here make Indiana perfect.”

PricewaterhouseCoopers ranks Indiana as the most attractive state in the nation for aerospace manufacturing. Meanwhile, Indiana’s aircraft and spacecraft exports have increased nearly 30 percent annually since 2002.

At the Purdue Research Foundation, we’re proud to be part of the statewide network that’s supporting Indiana’s incredible growth. This year we opened the new Purdue Research Park Aerospace District, which provides greater opportunities for aerospace entrepreneurs and businesses to collaborate with Purdue students and researchers on R&D projects.

Industry leaders are noticing Indiana’s momentum. That’s why the Aerospace Industries Association announced plans to bring its Supplier Management Council to Indiana, 300 of the nation’s top aerospace and defense manufacturers will come together to discuss the future of the industry. Indiana is engineering the future of flight, developing new technologies that will power the world into the 21st century. Its wheels up for the aerospace industry in Indiana. We’re now boarding.

Hasler is president of the Purdue Research Foundation.

Dan Hasler