Cowley County, Kansas, is the sweet spot in the Wichita region’s booming aerospace cluster, say industry executives doing business there. In fact, Winfield, the county seat, is emerging as the base for an aerospace industry sub-cluster, thanks to nearby Strother Field Airport, a former Army Air Corps training base and the site of a GE Aerospace engine overhaul facility that dates to 1951.
“At GE Aerospace, we’ve always valued strong relationships with local suppliers, and the addition of more aerospace companies in the area could create a powerful network of collaboration.”
— Katie Wilson, Strother Plant Leader, GE Aerospace
GE Aerospace, located at the 1,600-acre Strother Field Industrial Park, isn’t alone. Ballard Aviation has its aircraft paint facility there, as does Vector Tooling Technologies, an aerospace tooling design and manufacturing company. Galaxy Group subsidiary Galaxy Technologies, which manufactures equipment for aerospace companies’ assembly lines, is on the east side of Winfield. And Jet AirWerks, an aircraft-components repair and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) company, is just a few miles south of Strother Field, in Arkansas City.
Photos courtesy of GE Aerospace
Winfield’s aerospace heritage and 45-minutes-away proximity to the Wichita region and its cluster of about 450 aerospace manufacturers and suppliers have made it a key source of workers for the larger cluster. Many of them will be staying right in Cowley County and Winfield as their own aerospace industry gains critical mass.
‘Ready-made Infrastructure for Growth’
“The potential for an aerospace sub-cluster in Winfield, centered around Strother Field, is very promising,” says Katie Wilson, Strother Plant leader at GE Aerospace. “Strother Field already has key assets that make it attractive for aerospace businesses, including direct access to the airfield and available industrial space.” The Strother Field Airport has two runways, the main one being 5,500 feet long; the crosswind runway is 3,150 feet in length.
“The local community is well-positioned to support additional aerospace companies, particularly suppliers of aviation parts and materials,” adds Wilson. “The Industrial Park has a couple of open buildings that could be utilized by incoming businesses, providing a ready-made infrastructure for growth. At GE Aerospace, we’ve always valued strong relationships with local suppliers, and the addition of more aerospace companies in the area could create a powerful network of collaboration.”
Galaxy Technologies has been supplying assembly parts and equipment to aerospace customers since 1995. It employs about 150 at its 150,000-sq.-ft. site in Winfield. Bell Textron is a recent addition to its client list. It’s assembling fuselages for the U.S. Army’s MV-75 Future Long Range Assault Aircraft in Wichita. Galaxy’s other clients include Boeing’s Commercial and Defense divisions, Northrop Grumman, Spirit Aerospace, Lockheed Martin and Blue Origin, among others.
“The City of Winfield has always been interested in what we’re doing here,” says Paul Maples, chief revenue officer for the Galaxy Group and president of Galaxy Technologies. “They are out to see us a couple of times a year as with other major industries in town, whether it’s working with us on utility rates or other matters such as infrastructure — when we need more power, the city is very helpful with that, as it is in terms of building sites and land if we were to grow. They’re always asking how we’re doing and how they can help us.”
Paul Maples, President, Galaxy Technologies
An Aerospace Growth Trifecta Bodes Well
Maples is on board with the notion of a Winfield-centered aerospace sub cluster, particularly given the trajectory of commercial aviation, defense and space technology growth.
“What SpaceX and Blue Origin are doing is one of the most exciting things for Winfield and the Wichita area to take advantage of,” Maples relates. Blue Origin’s vision is to establish a road to space, build a transportation network and enable millions of people to live and work in space for the benefit of Earth by developing reusable rockets and leveraging space resources to reduce the high cost of access to space. “There is a lot of space work going on in Wichita right now to support this effort and those companies,” he notes.
Commercial airlines and air cargo operators will require tens of thousands of new aircraft to replace existing fleets in the coming decades, Maples points out. And current events globally are driving heightened aerospace-related defense spending, much of which is coming to U.S. companies with south Kansas operations.
“The space, commercial and defense markets are primed for almost vertical growth if you look out the next decade plus,” says Maples. “Businesses wanting to look at areas where there is space, defense and aerospace work going on, south central Kansas, be it a Wichita cluster or a Winfield cluster, is a great area to take advantage of that and to tap into a very historical workforce that has supported Wichita aerospace from the beginning. A lot of those people are here in Cowley County.”
This Investment Profile was prepared under the auspices of the City of Winfield. For more information, visit winfieldks.org.
