Gearing Up for Summer Events

Proposed New Jet
Last year, Sheboygan County Memorial Airport (SBM) entered into a 50-year lease agreement with aircraft maker Morgan Aircraft. The company plans to develop a new type of jet that can take-off and land vertically. The manufacturing site for the proposed new jet would be located on the north-central quadrant of the airport, where SBM has initiated more than $2 million in infrastructure development and site improvements.

“In ten years, according to Morgan’s business plan, there will be 1,500 jobs created at the airport,” says airport manager Chuck Mayer. “We have built enough infrastructure on the north end for Morgan to come in and break ground on their manufacturing facility [a proposed 600,000-square foot plant].”

According to Sheboygan County Administrator Adam Payne in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in July of last year, the Wisconsin Department of Commerce has offered the company $30 million in economic incentives.

Payne relates three phases of development, beginning with an office building and hangar where the company would construct and test the unique VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft prototype.

An annual report released by SBM early last year states, “County officials continue to work diligently with Morgan Aircraft representatives in an effort to create the necessary airport infrastructure that will allow for Morgan Aircraft to develop a major manufacturing facility at the airport.”