SPOKANE, Wash. — A new testing facility is part of a plan to make Spokane one of the leading aerospace testing cities in the country.
Nearly $50 million in funding was allocated to create the American Aerospace Materials Manufacturing Center (AAMMC) in Spokane. It was approved by the Biden-Harris administration as part of a large plan to develop 31 tech hubs across America.
AAMMC will be housed at a 600,000 square-foot facility near Spokane Airport and will be up and running in the next few years.
The goal of the project is that manufacturers will build their own plants in the Inland Northwest once the facility is ready.
50 different companies and agencies, including Boeing and NASA, are working together with local governments and schools to make Spokane an aerospace destination.
“Spokane-Coeur d’Alene has an advanced manufacturing base, a lot of that in aerospace. We also have a lot of folks doing composite materials for aerospace, and that is what this tech hub is going to do,” said Gary Ballew, VP of Economic Development at Greater Spokane Inc.
Currently, the closest aerospace testing facilities are in Asia and many companies have to make the trip all the way there to fest their parts. The AAMMC aims to bring that need closer to home.
The funding will first be used to bring expensive equipment to the facility to test aerospace parts for commercial and military planes. After that, companies will begin to test lightweight, plastic composite parts that are meant to save fuel and be better for the environment.
“The more they do test bed facilities here, the more that we will get those companies to settle here, the more supply chain that we are going to create across the board. It’s an entire ecosystem that we want to create around these advanced composites,” said Gynii Gillia, CEO of Coeur d’Alene Economic Development Corporation.
The project also includes working with local school districts and universities to prepare the next generation of engineers and designers to work in aerospace.
AAMMC is expected to be open in the next two years.
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