The Spokane Area Economic Development Council is working to respond to a request from Airbus North American affiliate for information about communities that could be potential sites for a $600 million U.S. aircraft manufacturing plant.


The plant, which would produce aerial refueling tankers for the U.S. Air Force, would employ 1,150 people by 2015, says EADS North America, the affiliate of Airbus, the European aircraft manufacturing consortium. EADS North America sent the request to the governors of all 50 states Jan. 12 and limited responses to three communities from each state.


Its a long shot, and all 50 states are going to be submitting up to three proposals, says EDC President and CEO Jon Eliassen. Its going to be a tough competition.


Theresa Sanders, the EDCs executive vice president for business development, says the EDC met with officials from Spokane International Airport, Spokane County, the city of Spokane Valley, and the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce last Friday to discuss the request. It also briefed the city of Spokane on that meeting afterwards.


We all walked away optimistic, feeling that we will have a very good shot, Sanders says.


The effort by leaders here to make a case for the Spokane area as a plant site comes shortly after Triumph Group Inc., of Wayne, Pa., announced that Airbus had awarded a $35 million contract to the West Plains plant of its Triumph Composite Systems Inc. subsidiary for design and manufacture of floor panels for Airbus A380 Freighter aircraft.


EADS North America, an arm of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., which owns 80 percent of Airbus, said earlier this month that it will select a U.S. site for production of the KC-330 advanced tanker aircraft, which the company plans to offer the U.S. Air Force.


In essence, the announcement spelled out how the European conglomerate will augment its North American industrial presence to compete with Boeing Co. to supply the U.S. Air Force with a new aerial refueling tanker.


EADS North America added that its plant site at first would house a new Airbus engineering center in that would serve long-range commercial aircraft. The Airbus center will employ 100 skilled aerospace engineers, and is to support commercial engineering work for the A330/A340 widebody jetlinersas well as the new A350 that currently is being proposed to airline customers, it said.


Months ago, it appeared that Boeing would win approval by the U.S. government of a lease arrangement through which it would supply some new tankers to the U.S. Air Force on an expedited basis. The first of the planes would have been supplied at a higher cost than tankers built later, but U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., fought the lease arrangement as unfair.


In November, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz said that if the Defense Department decides it needs a new aerial refueling tanker to meet its needs, it intends to require competition. No matter which alternative we choose, leasing is not an option without new congressional authority.


EADS North America said its site must have an airport with a runway thats at least 9,000 feet long; enough property to accommodate 1.5 million square feet of production, hangar, and office space; good access via rail and road; and a means of transport to a deep-water port.


Spokane International Airport, which plans to extend its runway to 12,000 feet, owns lots of undeveloped land, is near Interstate 90 and a rail line, and can meet EADS North Americas other needs, spokesman Todd Woodard contends. The Tri-Cities, where barges dock for shipping on the Columbia and Snake rivers, could serve as a deep-water port, and so could Western Washington ports, Woodard says.


EADS North America also said a key consideration will be a potential employment base that is able to meet the demands of world-class aircraft manufacturing and an ability to establish a cooperative relationship with a nearby university or college with a strong aerospace department and research ability.


Sanders says that many unemployed aerospace workers in King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties who were laid off by Boeing likely would relocate if EADS North America built a plant in Washington outside of the Puget Sound area.


Sanders also believes that outside of the Puget Sound area, only Spokane and Moses Lake, which has a 13,000-foot former U.S. Air Force runway, could meet EADS North Americas requirements for a plant site. Even if Spokanes attempt to land the plant site doesnt succeed, making the attempt is going to get us seen, she says. That has tremendous value.


Sanders says the Spokane areas response to EADS North America must be submitted to the Washington state Department of Trade and Economic Development by March 25, and EADS North America will review responses from communities across the nation in the second quarter. The Staubach Co., of Dallas, which is headed by former Dallas Cowboys star quarterback Roger Staubach, will help winnow the responses, and communities will be told at the end of the second quarter whether theyve made the cut, she says. Qualifying communities then will receive formal requests for proposals, and EADS North America will make a final decision on a site by the end of 2005, Sanders says. She calls that schedule very aggressive.