VOLUME 38 • NUMBER 12 • FEBRUARY 13, 2020
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Welcome to a new decade in aviation and aerospace
Boom Aerospace’s XB-1 Overture will fly at supersonic speeds.
Bye Aerospace’s eFlyer is electrically powered.
BY FREDA MIKLIN GOVERNMENTAL REPORTER
At its first partnership meeting of 2020, Denver South Economic Development Partnership reminded the 100 government officials and business executives who came to listen of the continuing huge impact of aviation and aerospace on our state.
Tom Brook, president and CEO, introduced the program. Joe Rice, a well-known former state legislator, Glendale mayor, and Iraq war veteran, is government relations director of Lockheed Martin Space. He pointed out that Colorado is the number one state in per capita jobs in aerospace, with 52,860 primary space jobs and over 500
space-related companies, half of which are small businesses. He also pointed to Colorado’s NASA prime contracts that exceed $1 billion in value. Today, Rice shared, only Russia and China are capable of human space flight, but Lockheed is working to change that with the Artemis program. The second phase, Artemis 2, is hoped to pro-
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duce the first crewed flight by an American company as early as 2024. Why go to Mars? Rice explained that the research that goes into the effort produces improvements in many other areas. He gave the example that mammogram technology came from the research that created the Hubbell Telescope.
Michael Fronapfel, director of planning and development at Centennial Airport came to explain the importance and economic impact of Centennial Airport, the second busiest general aviation airport in the United States. In 2019 Centennial had 355,000 operations, including Continued on page 7