AP
New Mexico sees its future in space-tech firms
By Tim Korte, The Associated Press
URL: http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/business/article/
0,1375,VCS_128_4965514,00.html
September 3, 2006
David G Pierre / AP
Advanced Aircraft Composites owner, Burt Frederick, adjusts a piece of fiberglass fabric over a mold that will be used for a blast shield at his business in Las Cruces, N.M. Frederick runs a composites company that is taking flight, along with other aviation and aerospace businesses, as New Mexico plans a $225 million spaceport.
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LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Burt Frederick admits he has stars in his eyes and his head is usually in the clouds. Yet he perfectly embodies a breed of entrepreneur that New Mexico is attracting these days.
An aircraft parts manufacturer who formerly worked with superstar aerospace designer Burt Rutan, Frederick runs a composites company that is taking flight, along with other aviation and aerospace businesses, as the state plans a $225 million spaceport.
New Mexico's clear blue skies offer ideal flying weather and little air traffic — top attractions for anyone hoping to send up a rocket or experimental aircraft. Other advantages include low population density and endless horizons of open desert.
"It's a really good place to test things that sometimes crash," said Frederick.
Other New Mexico businesses have celebrated recent breakthroughs in the aerospace and aviation fields.
Albuquerque-based Eclipse Aviation last month received preliminary Federal Aviation Administration certification for the Eclipse 500 very light jet — foreseen as the next generation of private aircraft, a so-called SUV of the skies. Then came word that LoPresti Aviation will build a 100,000-square-foot production plant in Belen, 30 miles south of Albuquerque. The Florida company makes the LoPresti Fury, a sporty, high-performance two-seat airplane.
"It's the smaller and more innovative aircraft companies that are moving things forward right now," said Charles Huettner, executive director of the Aerospace States Association.
Belen, with about 7,000 residents, was chosen for the LoPresti factory over 74 other sites nationwide.
"There is a terrific synergy," said R.J. Siegel, LoPresti's vice president for operations. "We will be the first traditionally built aircraft in New Mexico, which is great.
"And then there's the Virgin spaceport. That's the future. The state seems highly predisposed to attracting aviation."
The spaceport is the big project. British adventurer Richard Branson has outlined plans to spend $225 million on a complex that will be the world headquarters and launchpad for a space tourism company, Virgin Galactic.
State lawmakers conditionally approved $100 million in funding over the next three years for design and construction of the facility, dubbed Spaceport America, in the desert northeast of Las Cruces. It's scheduled for completion in 2010.
The spaceport is among the reasons Frederick, who grew up in nearby El Paso, Texas, wanted to return to the Southwest.
In five years at Rutan's company, Scaled Composites in Mojave, Calif., Frederick was part of the team that built SpaceShipOne, which won the $10 million Ansari X Prize by becoming the first commercial craft to reach space twice within five days.
Now, Frederick manufactures aircraft components such as wings and airframes. Recently, he milled a Kevlar-lined containment canister that will become part of a rocket-powered aircraft; days earlier, an engineer had dropped off a conceptual drawing.
"You can't order this part from a catalog, so we make it right here," Frederick explained.
When completed, the piece will be part of an aircraft in the Rocket Racing League® — a high-flying version of NASCAR based in Las Cruces, which also hosts the X-Prize Cup, an aviation and aerospace exposition held in October at the sprawling airport.
People like Frederick and companies like rocket-maker Starchaser Industries, Inc., have moved into the Las Cruces area in recent years to be closer to the space-crazed action. Many have small staffs, but they've got big dreams.
Starchaser, based in the United Kingdom, bought 120 acres of Chihuahuan desert along Interstate 10 west of Las Cruces, envisioning a "Rocket City" that will include manufacturing buildings, astronaut training facilities, hotels and restaurants.
"We decided this is a place we needed to be," said Kimmarie Hartley, Starchaser's director of operations. "We're starting out small. We're not NASA ¿, but we have a long-term vision."
On the Net:
New Mexico Spaceport: http://www.spaceportamerica.com;
Rocket Racing League®: http://www.rocketracingleague.com;
Starchaser: http://www.starchaser.co.uk/;
X-Prize Cup: http://www.xprizecup.com/
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