Flying Formation In Mississippi

Dec. 21, 2004

Helicopter production at a new American Eurocopter facility in Columbus is expected to be ramped up by yearend.

Unlike the Philip Roth novella, American Eurocopter LLC is saying hello rather than good-bye to Columbus -- Columbus, Miss., that is. Between $11 million and $12 million worth of plant and equipment is going into American Eurocopter's new production facility at the Golden Triangle Regional Airport in Columbus, a city near the Alabama border about 130 miles northeast of Jackson, Mississippi's capital. Ground was broken last August for the plant, which initially will employ 100 people. The land and building are being leased to American Eurocopter by the local airport authority. "We raised funds for the construction of the facility from the state, from regional economic-development organizations, and from local bonds and local grants," relates Nick Ardillo, executive director of the airport. American Eurocopter LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of France's Eurocopter, which in turn is a unit of European Aerospace Defense & Space Co. NV (EADS), the Amsterdam-based company that also holds an 80% stake in Airbus SAS, chief rival of Boeing Co. in the global commercial aviation market. The Columbus, Miss., facility represents an expansion of EADS' presence in the U.S. American Eurocopter claims to be the largest provider of commercial and homeland defense helicopters in the United States, with nearly 400 customers flying more than 1,300 aircraft. In addition to corporations, the company counts the U.S. Coast Guard and the Federal Bureau of Investigation among its customers. "We are determined to increase our already significant role in the U.S. economy, providing employment and quality products for U.S. corporate, para-public and governmental customers," Philippe Camus, CEO of EADS, stated at the groundbreaking ceremony. "This is the first of many industrial milestones we intend for the U.S., and we can envision increased production presence in defense and commercial aerospace in the near future." Also at the groundbreaking, Marc Paganini, president and CEO of American Eurocopter, stated, "We have found the right home in Mississippi, a community strong in spirit and talented employees." Paganini, based at American Eurocopter's headquarters in Grand Prairie, Texas, will be responsible for the staff and operations at the Columbus plant. The new 85,000-square-foot Columbus plant, on a 40-acre site, is expected to open for initial operations in a few weeks. Until the plant is ready to begin building helicopters from the skids up, something that's expected to occur late this year, workers will do finish work on aircraft that have been imported from Eurocopter in France and Germany. The new plant also will fabricate such helicopter parts as horizontal and vertical stabilizers, tail booms and instrument panels, which will be used in production both at the Columbus plant and in France. While the plant has been under construction, American Eurocopter has been operating from a hangar at Golden Triangle Regional Airport, turning out helicopters for law enforcement customers.

About the Author

John McClenahen | Former Senior Editor, IndustryWeek

John S. McClenahen, is an occasional essayist on the Web site of IndustryWeek, the executive management publication from which he retired in 2006. He began his journalism career as a broadcast journalist at Westinghouse Broadcasting’s KYW in Cleveland, Ohio. In May 1967, he joined Penton Media Inc. in Cleveland and in September 1967 was transferred to Washington, DC, the base from which for nearly 40 years he wrote primarily about national and international economics and politics, and corporate social responsibility.

      McClenahen, a native of Ohio now residing in Maryland, is an award-winning writer and photographer. He is the author of three books of poetry, most recently An Unexpected Poet (2013), and several books of photographs, including Black, White, and Shades of Grey (2014). He also is the author of a children’s book, Henry at His Beach (2014).

      His photograph “Provincetown: Fog Rising 2004” was selected for the Smithsonian Institution’s 2011 juried exhibition Artists at Work and displayed in the S. Dillon Ripley Center at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., from June until October 2011. Five of his photographs are in the collection of St. Lawrence University and displayed on campus in Canton, New York.

      John McClenahen’s essay “Incorporating America: Whitman in Context” was designated one of the five best works published in The Journal of Graduate Liberal Studies during the twelve-year editorship of R. Barry Leavis of Rollins College. John McClenahen’s several journalism prizes include the coveted Jesse H. Neal Award. He also is the author of the commemorative poem “Upon 50 Years,” celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Wolfson College Cambridge, and appearing in “The Wolfson Review.”

      John McClenahen received a B.A. (English with a minor in government) from St. Lawrence University, an M.A., (English) from Western Reserve University, and a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Georgetown University, where he also pursued doctoral studies. At St. Lawrence University, he was elected to academic honor societies in English and government and to Omicron Delta Kappa, the University’s highest undergraduate honor. John McClenahen was a participant in the 32nd Annual Wharton Seminars for Journalists at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. During the Easter Term of the 1986 academic year, John McClenahen was the first American to hold a prestigious Press Fellowship at Wolfson College, Cambridge, in the United Kingdom.

      John McClenahen has served on the Editorial Board of Confluence: The Journal of Graduate Liberal Studies and was co-founder and first editor of Liberal Studies at Georgetown. He has been a volunteer researcher on the William Steinway Diary Project at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., and has been an assistant professorial lecturer at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.