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Hilton Head Airport is set to receive a $7.3 million grant from the FAA as part of its Airport Improvement Program. The grant will be used to extend their runway to 5,000 feet.

According to James Stephens, executive director of the South Carolina Aeronautics Commission, the extension is necessary to not only retain the current airline service at Hilton Head Airport, but to enhance the ability to recruit new air carriers and increase the number of destinations.

“Airline business models have been changing toward the utilization of larger aircraft with greater passenger loading and shorter runway airports like Hilton Head cannot support the larger aircraft,” Stephens said. “This extension is critical for future economic development efforts and continued tourism income.”

This grant is part of a larger $167.6 million award the FAA is distributing to 64 airports in 30 states. To date, the FAA said the U.S. Department of Transportation has announced more than 1,300 new grants to nearly 1,200 airports, worth about $2 billion total. The grants fund airport infrastructure projects and airports are entitled to a certain amount of funding based on passenger volume.

This post contains excerpts from articles published by Aviation Today.

Earlier this month, Girl Scouts of South Carolina Mountains to Midlands hosted girls between 12 and 18 years old from across the country for our Eyes to the Sky Destination, a three-day immersion camp for girls interested in STEM.

The program, which ran Aug. 19 through 21, exposed girls to the world of Space Science and STEM through a unique partnership with NASA and coincided with the Total Solar Eclipse passing over South Carolina on Aug. 21, as well as the Eyes to the Sky Solar Eclipse destination.

Girl Scouts of South Carolina Mountains to Midlands and Girl Scouts of the USA announced on Aug. 17 new details on a five-year program called “Reaching for the Stars: NASA Science for Girl Scouts.” The program will be funded by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and led by the SETI Institute.

Girls will have the opportunity to explore careers in science, technology, engineering and math through Girls Scouts’ new Space Science Badges. The new badges will be offered at every level and range from Space Science Explorer for Daisies in kindergarten and first grade to Space Science Master for Ambassadors in grades 11 and 12.

Girl Scouts of South Carolina Mountains to Midlands is currently piloting the space badges with eight Daisy and eight Brownie troops volunteering to test the badges. The Space Science badges will join Girl Scouts’ national roster of STEM badges by 2019 and will provide a seamless pathway for girls to develop an appreciation for the cosmos and the skills necessary to continue on to a career in aerospace or other STEM fields.

This post contains excerpts from articles published by Midlands Biz.

Sigmatex Carbon Textile Solutions’ South Carolina facility earned the AS9100C Accreditation earlier this month.

Granted by the International Aerospace Quality Group, this accreditation serves as recognition of a firm’s dedication to global standards of quality assurance and guarantees the manufacture of quality and reliable products in the aerospace industry cluster.

Sigmatex Carbon Textile Solutions, which opened its Orangeburg location in 2015, develops and manufactures carbon fiber textiles for automotive, aerospace and consumer applications. With headquarters in the United Kingdom, China and the United States, Sigmatex produces cutting-edge materials, including three-dimensional and two-dimensional carbon-fiber fabrics, hydrophobic and high-modulus Innegra fabric, and unidirectional and multiaxial fabrics for applied purposes. At its South Carolina location, these technologies are leveraged to manufacture high-tech textiles that are used throughout the world in automotive and aerospace technologies.

“The certification is a direct result of the hard work of all of our employees, both in Orangeburg and globally,” Global Quality Manager Terry McManus explained. “This underlines our commitment to serving the composites industry. It is our mission to be the first choice partner for composite textiles and we aim to do this by continually improving the quality of our products and services. This activity is underpinned by the AS9100 quality standard, which will continue to be the benchmark for business management moving forward.”

This post contains excerpts from articles published by Net Composites and Quality Digest.

Long-term outlook for Boeing looks strong, despite layoff announcement

20-year market outlook predicts $6.1 trillion market

Boeing South Carolina issued another round of layoffs, this time voluntary notices to an undisclosed number of flight-ready technicians and flight readiness technician inspectors. These layoffs follow the company’s involuntary layoffs announced on June 23 – its first since opening for business in 2011 – just day’s after issuing its annual 20-year Current Market Outlook (CMO) last week, a forecast that predicts a $6.1 trillion global market.

Fewer than 200 employees at Boeing’s South Carolina operation received involuntary layoff notices back in June, affecting operations management, engineering, both management and non-management, quality managers, quality systems specialists and quality production specialists, industrial engineering, staff analysts and office administrators, and training.

Boeing newly-released CMO that demand for new jets will reach 41,030 over the next 20 years, worth approximately $6.1 trillion.  But, company leaders have said that the layoffs in South Carolina are necessary in the Commercial Airplanes division to boost competitiveness with rival Airbus and to cut production costs.

The CMO is a guide for analysts and investors, offering context to its development programs and strategic planning, and detailed forecasts for demand by model and geographic region.The wide-body jet forecast in the CMO calls for 9,130 new aircraft to address a “large wave of potential replacement demand beginning early in the next decade.” Boeing’s 787 and 777 series jets serve this segment.

This projected demand in wide-body jets is good news for the future of Boeing’s North Charleston operation,  where all three models of the 787 Dreamliner are built, interior components for the 787 are produced, and engine parts for the 777X are made.

Boeing South Carolina employed 7,379 people as of May 25 and had only voluntary layoffs prior to the recent announcement. Two hundred workers received voluntary notices in April 2016 and 600 received voluntary notices in January.

Vice President and General Manager of Boeing South Carolina Joan Robinson-Berry said the manufacturer has worked to mitigate the number of job cuts by bringing additional work to the site, offering voluntary layoff packages and filling open positions from within.

The South Carolina Department of Commerce (SCDOC) and the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce (DEW) are working to connect those affected by the layoffs with aerospace job opportunities within the state. This month SCDOC and DEW held a job fair event for those laid off, and plan to individually match up those looking for work with employment opportunities that fit their skills and experience in the aerospace industry cluster.

This post contains excerpts from articles published by Charleston Regional Business Journal and American Machinist.

SC Aerospace Director Adrianne Beasley was featured on OnPoint on WACH-FOX’s July 16 show on the importance of getting girls involved in STEM.

SC Aerospace Director Adrianne Beasley poses with Vanessa Wyche, Director of Exploration Integration and Science for NASA and SC native, at the OnPoint Leadership Institute for Girls Luncheon on July 31, 2017.

Beasley spoke with host Cynthia Hardy on the impact girls interested in STEM careers can have on South Carolina’s aerospace cluster. Women make up less than 10 percent of the aerospace workforce and in South Carolina alone, men outnumber women in STEM fields five to one.

“The main two factors that we see in getting girls involved in STEM fields is, one, to increase the awareness of what kind of careers are out there and then linking that back to the skill sets and interests they have now as they’re getting into middle school and high school,” Beasley said. “So I think the first thing is increasing that awareness and the second thing is providing mentorship opportunities so that women see that there are women succeeding in these career fields. There are lots of women that are very, very willing to share their experiences and be those mentors.”

Beasley also spoke to a group of South Carolina girls the OnPoint Leadership Institute for Girls on July 31 about why it’s so important that they not be afraid to explore sciences, math, engineering and other technological fields, but to also understand that there are so many opportunities for them to explore these fields without necessarily aspiring to be an engineer.

On June 15, Beasley spoke with a group of 60 eighth and ninth grade girls during the GEMS (Girls in Energy, Media, and Space) Camp at the Chapin Center for Advanced Technical Studies (Lexington School District 5). Adrianne sat on a panel with a civil engineer, soil scientist, and three women who hold senior positions in both engineering and management divisions at Boeing SC.

The discussion was centered on Women in Engineering fields, and Adrianne’s presentation included information on the multi-disciplinary opportunities for women in aerospace in South Carolina. Each panelist shared their own story about their career paths and gave advice to the girls on how to be successful in a mostly male career field.  Most of the students’ questions concerned how to best prepare for these careers in high school.  Adrianne’s advice to these students was to get involved in student organizations throughout their education – from taking advantage of aerospace or engineering curriculum if it’s offered at their school, to getting involved or starting student organizations like First Robotics or Tech Challenge; and also to seek out mentors at every stage of their education.  She also pointed out the apprenticeship opportunities that South Carolina has through its Apprenticeship Carolina programs that start as early as high school – the Youth Apprenticeship Carolina program is active in 32 SC counties and targets industry clusters like Advanced Manufacturing, Energy, Information Technology, and Logistics.

If you’re interested in having Adrianne and SC Aerospace speak to your group or organization, please email us.

TeamSC poses in front of a Boeing 787-10, built in North Charleston, at the Paris Air Show.

By Adrianne Beasley

Last month, SC Aerospace landed in Paris for the Paris Air Show (PAS), one of the industry’s largest trade shows. With more than 300,000 attendees and more than 2,300 exhibitors, preparing for the show takes about a year of cooperative planning between SC Aerospace and the SC Department of Commerce.

The SC Aerospace team works with the SC Department of Commerce to identify which South Carolina companies would benefit from exposure at the PAS and would represent the diversity and current landscape of the state’s aerospace cluster. A big part of my role in this selection process is serving as a subject matter expert on aerospace in South Carolina.

The four aerospace companies that joined us at PAS – TIGHITCO (North Charleston), FSC Cutting Tools (Greenville), Innegra Technologies (Greenville) and Zeus (Orangeburg) – are prime examples of the diverse array of expertise in SC’s aerospace cluster – composite materials, composite manufacturing tools, aerostructures, and advanced polymers. Each was given booth space within the SC Pavilion to showcase their products and conference space to meet with potential customers. The SC Department of Commerce works with our exhibiting companies to make the most of their week in Paris by helping them with meeting planning and matchmaking opportunities.

South Carolina’s delegation seated inside the cabin of an aircraft at the Paris Air Show.

Once we’re in Paris and the show is underway, SC Aerospace’s focus shifts to existing firms in South Carolina. It’s important for us to touch base with all our existing aerospace companies, including their parent companies, to discuss any issues they may be experiencing that SC Aerospace can help alleviate. Connecting with our existing aerospace firms while at the Paris Air Show gives us a great opportunity to show them exactly what we’ve been up to, for example, the SC Aerospace Conference and Expo or the workforce development efforts of our Aerospace Education Working Group.

Making sure that both existing and potential aerospace firms know about the opportunities available in South Carolina is an important part of my job. SC Aerospace works diligently to help grow the business infrastructure to support the expanding aerospace industry here in South Carolina. We wake up every day thinking about how to make our aerospace industry more successful and encourage future investments, and it’s important for firms to see us as a valuable resource.

We may be back stateside after our week at the Paris Air Show, but planning is already underway for the Farnborough Air Show in July 2018. If your company is interested in learning more about exhibiting with Team SC in Farnborough, please email me or Anita Patel at the SC Department of Commerce.

Amazon has begun development on building its own air traffic control system for its fleet of autonomous delivery drones. The online retailer has created a new research and development team near Paris to work on the project.

The team is tasked with building a system to ensure that the company’s drones don’t collide with buildings, trees, other drones or birds – all hazards often referred to as “non-collaborative flying objects.”

According to Amazon’s Vice President for global innovation policy and communications Paul Misener, a new system has to be developed for its drones because what was available wasn’t adequate for its large fleet. This air-traffic control system is more complicated than what is used by airlines because there are more obstacles to account for at the lower heights at which drones operate.

Amazon’s team of engineers, all with experience in aviation, machine learning and artificial intelligence will design a management system with detailed maps, information on bad weather conditions and instructions on how to react if a collision or near-collision occurs – all to be loaded directly onto the drones, allowing vehicles to communicate with each other and a central control center in real time.

Learn more about UAS on Wednesday, August 30th, at the SC Aerospace Conference during the three-speaker session, “Navigating the Future of Unmanned Aircraft Systems.”

This post contains excerpts from an article published by Bloomberg.  Read the full article here>>

Hexcel’s Global Leader of Advanced Modeling Sanjay Sharma and Toray’s Senior Research Scientist Jeff Satterwhite are the newest additions to the SC Aerospace Conference and Expo program. Their presentations will focus on the current state of design and analysis methods in composite materials, which are crucial in aircraft construction.

Sharma will discuss Hexcel’s advanced composites research and development. Hexcel is a global leader in advanced composites technology and supplies commercial aviation, space and defense, as well as industrial markets worldwide. The commercial aerospace industry is the largest user of Hexcel’s advanced composites, including the Airbus A350 XWB and the Boeing 737 Max.

Satterwhite will present on Toray’s high-performance carbon fiber products and how they are used in the construction of aircraft. Toray is the world’s largest producer of carbon fiber, some of which will be manufactured at the company’s newest US facility in South Carolina. Toray currently supplies prepreg carbon fiber for Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner and 777X.

Mehmet Yildiz, director of Sabanci University’s Composite Technologies Center of Excellence, and Zafer Gürdal, Ronald E. McNair Endowed Chair Holder at the McNAIR Center for Aerospace Innovation & Research at the University of South Carolina, will also participate in the session.