Ogden turns on landing lights

Ogden could land several hundred jobs over the next few years if a Colorado aircraft maker picks Utah over two other states competing for a planned manufacturing facility.

The Utah Board of Business and Economic Development on Friday did its part, approving financial incentives to get Adam Aircraft Industries to build small business jet aircraft here.

If Utah wins, the production work would start by year-end at an existing hangar at Ogden-Hinckley Airport, growing to 400 to 500 jobs in three years, Rick Adam, the company's founder and chief executive officer, told the board.

"I think, real-life, we'll do a lot better than that because we're looking at a lot of demand. But we're trying to underpromise and overdeliver on this stuff. We feel very comfortable with the 400 to 500 range, but we think it will be a lot more than that," he said.

Utah is competing with Kentucky and Texas — the short list after the company considered more than 50 sites. "We have kissed a lot of frogs, and we've only found a couple of princesses in the group," Adam said.

The company needs a good airport and room to construct buildings around it, a large labor pool of mechanics and training for them, and economic incentives, "and the three of them match up here," Adam said.

Adam Aircraft started building planes in 2000. Its piston-twin craft is nearing certification. But the company wants to build a version with

propulsion coming from a pair of jets made by Williams International, which has a manufacturing facility in Ogden.

"So we think we can do production on the jet about a year from now," Adam said. "We're looking for a place to produce those jets, and we've had very, very good dialogue with folks from Utah, and particularly folks from Ogden, about potentially locating our facilities up in the Ogden area."

Those two planes would have many common components, and the company plans to later build a single-turboprop model and a 19-seat regional jet aircraft.

The jet facility would need mechanics, managers and quality-assurance staff, he said. "It turns out that the Salt Lake region, and Ogden and Hill Air Force Base in particular, has a lot of that kind of labor, and there are schools in the region that produce those kinds of folks on a regular basis," Adam said.