Rockford Area Aerospace Network discusses Mid-American aerospace community, regional vital aerospace assets

FARNBOROUGH, England, 11 July 2014. “Every plane in the sky today contains a part from Rockford, Illinois. Every single airplane has a component that was manufactured not only in the United States, not only in the Midwest, not only in Illinois, but in Rockford, Illinois,” explains a Rockford Area Aerospace Network spokesperson.

Rockford, Ill., is home to five major Tier One aerospace suppliers. Rockford was on Boeing’s top five lists of sites to consider building its new 777x aircraft. Most recently, Woodward, a provider of products and services to the aerospace and energy markets, has broken ground on a second campus in the greater Rockford area for its aircraft turbine systems business – a $300 million, 1,400 job expansion in the Rockford area.

The Rockford Area Aerospace Network and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity are exhibiting at the Farnborough Air Show in Hall 2, Booth 23.

More than 200 aerospace suppliers operate in Rockford, Ill. The aerospace cluster is one of the leading aerospace employment centers in the United States. Rockford’s unique strength is the presence of diverse companies at all levels of the supply chain, including assembly, inspection, testing repair, and software. More than 80 percent of Illinois’ aerospace workforce is found in Rockford’s MSA, and it has twice the national average of manufacturing workers, officials say.