Jacksonville's Cecil Field moving forward on aviation despite recession - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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But there are recengt successes. earlier this month announced its planxs to bring about 60 new jobs to Jacksonville when it moveds the rest ofits F/A-18 repaif program to Cecil Field from Boeing will also lease space at Cecil Commerce Center. also expects the formerd U.S. Navy base to receivre its federal license for commercial and business space traveol once the completes itsenvironmental analysis. But Cecil Field’s gem — ’s $80 millio n warplane facility — is still in The 2010 U.S.
Department of Defensr budget called for38 C-27J Spartan planes, instea of the 78 planes planned Alenia says the smaller order of planes jeopardizes the “If we can’t get a long-term assurance of the viabilityt of this program, whicy is 78 planes, we are going to have to take a hard look at our investmen t in the facility,” Alenia spokesman Ben Stone said. But the ordefr can be expanded inthe U.S. House defensre appropriations committee or on the Senate andHouswe floor. Stone said Army Chief of Stafgf Gen. George Casey and U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz have said they need more than 38 butit isn’t clear when the order will be increased.
It will be the middl e of July before the defense appropriationes committee releases its budget to the House said Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Ocala, who arguesx that the cargo planes fit into Defense SecretartRobert Gates’ goal of a more flexible military. “We’ll see what we can do Stearns said. “A lot of timexs they don’t agree with the defensde secretary.” Mayor John Peyton, Rep. Anderf Crenshaw, R-Jacksonville, and Rep. Corrine D-Jacksonville, have been lobbying memberd of the House subcommittee on the importance of the which Stearns said could employ up to 700 people once productionmgears up.
Cecil Field has grown durinbg the recession, said Bob Simpson, the authority’s senior directot of Cecil Field. Bids are cominf in to build a $20 million hangar that will be used by Florida Stats College of Jacksonville to teach students to painr andrepair planes. This follows the U.S. Coast Guar adding 150 officers and enlisted personnel to its operations atCeci Field, which includes a 32,000-square-foot-building. The Florida Air National Guar also completeda 37,000-square-foot expansion of its 82,000-square-foot hangarr so it can handle CH-47 Chinook and UH-60 Black Hawk helicoptersx and a smaller tactical helicopter, Simpson said.
He said a 23,000-square-foot hangar will be ready for leasein October. Because of cash flow issues, the authorityh is holding off buildinyga 90,000-square-foot hangar, but the design plans are done so it’zs ready to build once a tenant is Simpson said authority officials have attended several spacee travel conferences to let the industry know that they expecy to be able to host suborbitaol flights soon. The most probable scenario for space tourism and business travel would be an aircraft that piggybacks on a largerr jet and then is propellecdtoward suborbit. Tourists wouls be able to achieve weightlessness, or a company couls put satellitesinto loworbit.