Air shuttles to the Jersey Shore? Aviation tech park in N.J. might make it happen. - NJ.com

Air shuttles to the Jersey Shore? Aviation tech park in N.J. might make it happen. - NJ.com

Imagine skipping the Uber and instead taking an electric-propelled air jitney from the airport to one of the Atlantic City boardwalk hotels. It’s just one of the next advancements in aviation, travel, and engineering that is being studied and developed at the Atlantic County Aviation Innovation Hub in Egg Harbor Township.

Travelers coming in and out of the Atlantic City Airport — just 10 miles northwest of the Jersey Shore resort town — might not notice what’s happening behind closed doors of the buildings just outside of it.

But the Aviation Innovation Hub — a nearly 8 square mile area that includes the airport, the Federal Aviation Administration’s William J. Hughes Tech Center and the National Aviation Research and Tech Park — has slowly been turning the South Jersey region into one of the most technically advanced aviation clusters in the country.

The National Aviation Research and Tech Park, a 66,000-square-foot building that cost $20 million and was paid for by through bonds issued by the Atlantic County Improvement Authority, opened in June and is the first of what officials envision will be a thriving 58-acre campus with seven buildings.

While the airport and FAA’s Tech Center had been there for decades, the county wanted to harness the power of the two to create a partnership that would drive a new aviation-related industry.

Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson said he came up with the hub idea during the economic downturn of the late 2000s when five of Atlantic City’s casinos closed, leading to nearly 11,000 people being out of work and a less than stellar real estate market in the area.

“Being in politics, you are advised all the time and pros and cons of a project, and when I started this endeavor, I was told pretty clearly that this is a career-ender,” Levinson told NJ Advance Media. “I wanted to put a building up. When I was questioned about it, I had no current tenants and I had no prospective tenants. But it was almost an ‘if you build it, they will come’ type of thing.”

Howard Kyle, board representative for the National Aviation Research and Technology Park, speaks during a presentation at the National Aviation Research and Technology Park in Egg Harbor Township, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020. Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

To lead that initiative, the county created the Atlantic County Economic Alliance (ACEA), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, with executive director Lauren H. Moore Jr. at the helm.

“What we are trying to do here is catalyze private sector investment,” Moore Jr. said. “We want to add the spark so that private sector development can come in and build the infrastructure that’s needed to support the aviation cluster. We want to bring wealth and a new industry into Atlantic County.”

The three-story building is fully leased, with nine companies, ranging from Thunderbolt Software to General Dynamics Information Technology, said tech park Board of Director’s Secretary Howard Kyle, who led NJ Advance Media on a recent tour. Inside, there are numerous high-tech conference rooms, flight simulators, and other tech-related equipment.

The proximity to the Atlantic City Airport’s 10,000-foot runway, a newer 6,144-foot test runway shared by the airport and the FAA tech center, and less congested air space have caught the attention of a number of businesses and educational institutions, Kyle said. Now, they’re already planning the second building.

Elevate Jet, the charter airline service that carries bands, pro, and college sports teams, is in the final stages of negotiations with the county to have a 23,500 square-foot hangar built on the campus. It would be leased by Elevate Jet and built using bonds issued by the Atlantic County Improvement Authority. The project is expected to create 200 jobs that include mechanics, pilots, flight crews, and other aviation-related positions.

“This 10,000-foot runway is gigantic and can handle almost any aircraft in the world,” said ACEA Director of Aviation Business Development Noel McGuire. “You have Class-C airspace, which is much less congested, so it is really attractive in terms of costs of doing business for aviation companies, and they can bring any aircraft in the world in here.”

The hub also has spurred futuristic ideas. In conjunction with the FAA, a study is underway for the possibility of an electric-propelled “air jitney” route that would serve the Atlantic City area. The proposed route for an Urban Air Mobility (UAM) vehicle, similar to a taxi, would utilize a vehicle that would fly from the Atlantic City Airport to different parts of the island such as Bader Field, and stop at hotels, casinos, and other attractions.

The ACEA also won a three-year, $1.7 million i6 Challenge grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce to create the Smart Airport and Aviation Partnership, along with interest from Boeing to possibly test unmanned cargo flights at the airport.

There is also research and talks being conducted in conjunction with the South Jersey Transportation Authority and Rutgers Cooperative Extension into expanding the air cargo operations done at the Atlantic City Airport, which Moore said would be a big opportunity that could help with the logistical exports of the region’s agricultural products to other areas of the country and the world.

Moore said he attributes the hub’s growth to a symbiotic relationship the tech park has with two other aviation facilities, creating what he called an “aviation research triangle.” The combination of drone research being conducted at the Cape May County Airport, and the potential for skilled military members at the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst who are preparing to leave the service gives the entities more leverage to try to attract larger companies and incentives from the state.

“Workforce development is a big deal for us,” Moore Jr. stated. “Employers follow employees, and the talent that we need can come from the veteran side of the workforce, and we want to work closely with the Joint Base to be able to have a steady supply of qualified individuals to supply the workforce that we need for this industry.”

The alliance is trying to fill the need for skilled aviation workers through a multi-track approach. The hub has partnerships with higher education schools such as Rowan University, Stockton University, and Atlantic Cape Community College. The education initiative has even reached down to the high school level. The Atlantic County Institute of Technology, the county’s vocational school, has a dedicated classroom in the NARTP and has its own flight simulator for students to gain aviation experience.

A flight simulator at the National Aviation Research and Technology Park in Egg Harbor Township, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020. Lori M. Nichols | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

There is also an agreement in place with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, one of the most highly-touted aerospace and aviation schools in the country, to help create the Atlantic County Aviation Maintenance and Technical Academy within the hub area.

The Academy will help train aviation mechanics to work on cargo and commercial aircraft. The workers could also be used by the wind energy sector, with the mechanics’ knowledge of turbines. The ACEA is currently working on a $4 million federal grant to build the facility, with the other $4 million coming from a mixture of private and public funds. The goal is to begin construction on the Academy in 2021.

Chris Franklin can be reached at cfranklin@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @cfranklinnews or on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.

Lori M. Nichols may be reached at lnichols@njadvancemedia.com. Follow Lori on Instagram at @photog_lori and Twitter @photoglori. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.com’s newsletters.

2020-03-01 15:00:00Z
https://www.nj.com/atlantic/2020/03/air-shuttles-to-the-jersey-shore-aviation-tech-park-in-nj-might-make-it-happen.html

Bagikan Berita Ini