Major Project Touches Down at PTI

Jan. 27—GUILFORD COUNTY — Piedmont Triad International Airport has landed what is expected to be a major economic development project by a company that intends to create 1,760 jobs building a new generation of supersonic passenger jets.

Boom Supersonic ended weeks of speculation when company leaders announced Wednesday afternoon that it will build its first aircraft manufacturing plant at PTIA. The plans were unveiled during an outdoor ceremony at the airport that drew Gov. Roy Cooper and other state and local dignitaries, including High Point Mayor Jay Wagner and other city leaders.

"We are launching the future of flight," said Cooper, who was joined onstage by top GOP leaders Sen. Phil Berger Sr., R- Rockingham, and House Speaker Tim Moore, R- Cleveland.

The Colorado-based aviation startup company intends to invest $500 million through the end of the decade.

State economic development officials approved incentives Wednesday for the project that could total $87 million over 20 years.

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners and Greensboro City Council kicked in local incentives through separate votes Wednesday. The commissioners approved a $12 million package, while the Greensboro council OK'd incentives that could total up to $5 million.

The N.C. General Assembly previously approved $106.75 million for infrastructure improvements at the site.

Salaries will average $68,792 annually, increasing the regional payroll by more than $120 million every year, the governor's office reports. The Guilford County average annual wage currently stands at $53,994 a year.

Cooper said the project could have a $32 billion economic impact over a 20-year period.

Boom Supersonic leaders, including founder and CEO Blake Scholl, said they picked PTIA for the project because of the region's quality of life, outstanding schools and well-prepared workforce.

"With some of the country's best and brightest aviation talent, key suppliers and the state of North Carolina's continued support, Boom is confident that Greensboro will emerge as the world's supersonic manufacturing hub," Scholl said.

Wagner said the recruitment of Boom Supersonic involved a collaborative effort by High Point, Greensboro and Winston-Salem, as well as other communities and agencies in the region.

The company intends to shift the air travel industry through supersonic jets that would shorten flight times dramatically. Boom Supersonic intends to have its first planes roll off the manufacturing line by the middle of the decade, with first commercial flights by the end of the decade.

Boom is one of several companies trying to revive supersonic passenger travel, which fizzled with the grounding of the Concorde nearly two decades ago. Boom has built a one-third-size demonstrator aircraft called the XB1, but now the company faces the engineering challenge of bulking that up for commercial travel.

Many technical and manufacturing steps must be met to offer airlines Boom's plane, called Overture, which would carry 65 to 88 passengers, consume so-called sustainable aviation fuel and cruise at 60,000 feet at 1,300 mph — twice the speed of today's passenger jets.

Boom boasts of "pre-orders" from several potential customers, including United Airlines, which last year announced plans to buy 15 planes and take options for another 35. United, however, said any actual purchases hinge on Boom meeting certain financial and operational targets, which it declined to describe in any detail.

Skeptics say that if supersonic passenger travel were really feasible, Boeing and Airbus would be building the planes instead of leaving the market to start-ups like Boom.

The Boom Supersonic announcement marks the second major economic development project for the region in the past two months.

In December, Toyota Motor Corp. said it will spend $1.29 billion building its first U.S. electric car battery manufacturing plant at the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite, the largest-single private investment for a project in state history. The company will create at least 1,750 jobs. Eventually the operation could grow to 3,875 jobs and $3 billion of investment.

The recruitment of the two major projects shows that the Carolina Core initiative set up four years ago to tout the region is paying dividends, said Loren Hill, Carolina Core regional economic development director.

The Carolina Core is a branding initiative of the Piedmont Triad Partnership. The core covers a region of central North Carolina along a 120-mile section of U.S. 421 from Interstate 77 to Interstate 95.

The region has four megasites, and now two of them — the one at PTIA and the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite — have secured major projects, said Hill, who formerly was president of the High Point Economic Development Corp.

The other two core megasites are the Chatham-Siler City Advanced Manufacturing Site and Triangle Innovation Point, both of which are in Chatham County.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[email protected] — 336-888-3528 — @HPEpaul

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