Raleigh County Memorial Airport

RALE IGH COUNTY MEMOR I AL A I RPORT of people typically has a mechanical aptitude, as well as hydraulic and electrical experience. However, aerospace industry jobs aren’t limited to former coal miners. “Even the younger generation that wants to be in the aerospace - they can go for the two-year program for the A & P, or they can go on for the four-year through West Virginia Tech that has an aerospace engineering cadre within their school, as we speak,” Cochran reports. These training and education opportunities were part of the reason Tucson Atlantic Consulting and Common Sense Economic Development, along with data partner — the University of Southern Mississippi — awarded the AEROReady Community Certification to the Airport, connecting seven counties in southern West Virginia supporting an additional workforce potential. Those counties are Raleigh, Fayette, Summers, Nicholas, Wyoming, Mercer, and McDowell. To assess the viability of attracting aerospace industry businesses to the seven-county coal operators had their own aircraft and more than a few spent time at RCMA. With the coal industry on the downturn in recent decades, the Airport has looked to diversify as a way to help itself and surrounding communities. Two chunks of property, one of 174 acres and the other 278 acres, have been set aside for industrial parks and those parks have already attracted hydraulic companies, small manufacturers, and electric companies. The goal, looking forward, is to attract aerospace industry businesses, which will require qualified workers, so the Airport has partnered with New River Community and Technical College, located about a mile away, and West Virginia University Institute of Technology, about three miles away. “We’re partnering with them to do an A & P (airframe and powerplant) school here, as well as to support the workforce for the potential aerospace industry that we plan to locate here,” Cochran explains. He’s hopeful this opportunity will appeal to former coal miners. This group