Employment in the state's aviation-aerospace sector is also getting a nice lift. Jeff Thompson, executive director of the Alabama Aerospace Industry Association, says the industry numbered 73,000 direct jobs according to a 2004 survey. He says that number figures to skyrocket when a new survey is conducted later this year. Adding to the totals will be several ongoing expansions.
   GKN Aerospace is on schedule with construction of a 120,000-sq-ft. (11,150-sq.-m.) expansion to its 260,000-sq.-ft. (24,150-sq.-m.) facility in Tallassee.

GKN Aerospace is on schedule with construction of a 120,000-sq.-ft. (11,150-sq.-m.) addition to its facility in Tallassee.

Business is good for GKN, a U.K.-headquartered firm whose customers include Sikorsky, Airbus and GE Aviation. GKN manufactures composite structures for helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft and also assembles aircraft engines.
   It's the quality of the region's work force that has made Tallassee a good place to expand GKN's business, says Gregg Ferrell, director of business development for GKN. The Tallassee operation is adding 250 employees to 500 currently on staff as the $20-million expansion develops. The new building will be finished in October and operational during the first quarter of 2007. GKN bought the existing facility from United Technologies unit Sikorsky, now its largest customer, in 1998.
   "The area has an attractive work force and the cost of living is low," Ferrell says. "And we've had good support from local and state government."
   Huntsville, a longtime center of aviation and aerospace activity, is the scene of several recent corporate campus-type projects. Three of these are happening in Cummings Research Park with major firms in the sector consolidating their area facilities.
   Northrop Grumman is building a new $80-million, five-building complex in Huntsville to accommodate rapid growth. The company employs about 1,200 in the Huntsville area in more than 20 facilities and will consolidate most in the new headquarters facility. Northrop Grumman also plans to locate the system integration laboratory for its Kinetic Energy Interceptor missile-defense program at the new complex. The lab will employ up to 70 engineers, including new hires and employees transferring from other company sites.

SAIC is one of several aviation firms expanding in Huntsville's Cummings Research Park.

   SAIC has had a Huntsville beachhead since 1972 and has experienced continual growth. The first building, a 102,000-sq.-ft. (9,500-sq.-m.) structure, is under way and due for completion in May 2007. It will consolidate personnel from nine buildings, says Bill Gurley, SAIC senior vice president and general manager of the Systems and Technology Solutions business unit in Huntsville. Gurley says SAIC employs 2,100 in Huntsville and employment has grown by 15 to 17 percent annually.
   "We've found Huntsville to be a very lucrative market for us," Gurley says. The company has found plenty of opportunities with all of the Dept. of Defense- and NASA-related work in the area, he says.
   Consolidation will bring about efficiencies as SAIC develops more of a corporate campus that will be beneficial to both employees and customers. Gurley says 55 percent of his group currently uses work space in government buildings.
   Raytheon, also seeking efficiency, is building a $20-million, 140,000-sq.-ft. (13,000-sq.-m.) facility to house 500 Huntsville-area employees.
   Raytheon is also on the move in south Alabama as it joins with EADS CASA North America to build the final assembly and delivery site for its proposed military cargo aircraft at the Mobile Regional Airport. The new co-located facility will create more than 150 jobs if the aircraft is selected for new Army and Air Force requirements. Construction of the new delivery center will begin during the second quarter of 2006.
   Construction began in Mobile in January of Airbus North America's engineering center, scheduled to open in January 2007 and employ at least 150 engineers at full capacity. The facility will be responsible for assignments related to Airbus' new A350 aircraft.