The sound of it was different, and not just because it approached nearer and lower than the others.

As it passed overhead in the clear blue of morning, the difference was even more clear. Adam Aircraft Industries' A500 Centerline twin-engine plane shone sleeker and faster — even with its distinctive tail — than the Cessnas taking off to the east, growling as it banked eastward and away from the gathered crowd, but with not quite the military muscle of the fighter jets rumbling out of nearby Hill Air Force Base.

On Friday, Adam Aircraft celebrated the groundbreaking of its new jet manufacturing and assembly facility. Along with the A500, Adam Aircraft also will design, test and build its A700 Adam Jet, which is still under Federal Aviation Administration review. The new facility, located at the Kemp Ogden Gateway Center, 4282 S. 1650 West in Ogden, will be 96,000 square feet when complete and eventually will employ about 430 workers.

"We looked at all the cutting edge companies that were emerging in aviation," said Bryce Gibby, director of marketing for Kemp Development Inc. "The composite fabrication business — where aircraft are built with far less moving parts, with the new generation engines, with the super high-tech ability to fly an aircraft that costs half the money of traditional airplanes, and fly far more economically — was a major innovation in America.

"We looked at all the various companies in the country and felt that Adam Aircraft led the pack. They showed the most innovation, that had the greatest skills to make it all happen."

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said that the arrival of Adam Aircraft added to a growing "aviation/aerospace cluster" developing in Weber and northern Davis counties.

"People have talked about it for a long time, and we're seeing it right here before our very eyes — the most exciting new development in our state, industrially speaking — and that is the creation of an aerospace cluster," Huntsman said.

That cluster now includes composites fabrication and assembly, engines (in Williams International, which builds the engines used in Adams' planes) and the Air Force base, Huntsman said.

And the state helped fertilize the cluster. Thanks to a law passed in 2004 to spur growth in certain aerospace and aviation "zones," Utah provided a $17.7 million incentive over 15 years for Adam Aircraft, and $18.9 million over 20 years for Williams.

Craig Johnson, chief operating officer at Adam Aircraft, said the new facility will employ about 50 to 75 workers by year's end and top 300 workers by 2008 or 2009. In that time, Johnson said, the company will focus on improving its FAA-certified A500 (it just received additional capabilities last month, like night flight ability, cockpit pressurization and single-pilot flight capability); and on certifying the jet, which the company hopes to do next year.

Adam plans to build six A500s this year (the sixth of six built at the Ogden facility). By 2008, Johnson said, the company plans to be building 10 planes per month at the Ogden plant.

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E-mail: jnii@desnews.com