COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — A technology hub focused on aerospace manufacturing is seeking federal funding for a new facility in Spokane that would partner with local colleges and universities to train workers for aerospace jobs.
Bringing more jobs in aerospace to the Inland Northwest is something that’s been in the works since 2023. The federal government actually awarded nearly $50 million in funding to build a facility to test airplane parts in Airway Heights, but that funding was rescinded earlier this year.
Now the group behind the aerospace tech hub is reapplying for a federal grant to make it a reality. They are competing for $220 million in funding.
“If we have that tech hub here, it will bring original equipment manufacturers into the area because they’re going to want to do development on their own,” said Patrick Jones, president of ATC Manufacturing. “That would be the Boeings, the Airbuses of the world potentially, or others.”
Jones is the president of ATC Manufacturing in Post Falls. They make airplane parts out of lightweight plastic composites, which the tech hub is hoping to manufacture on a larger scale.
“We’ve heard from Boeing and Airbus that there’s a lot of demand coming in the near future,” said Jason Merrifield, business development manager at ATC. “Airplanes have a typical life cycle of 25-40 years so some of those older planes are starting to retire.”
In order to meet the demand for all of the airplanes that need to be built, the tech hub wants to invest in workforce development locally. It plans to partner with local colleges and universities.
“It’s a big boost for our region and for our nation,” said Patrick McHail, director of the AAMMC Tech Hub. “It’ll really drive a lot of outsider investment both in research funding to explore how to optimize these new shapes and how they get scaled, but in particular we’re interested in building out the local workforce here.”
Part of the plan for the tech hub includes partnering with several local colleges and universities to create programs that would teach students what they need to know to work in aerospace. That includes the University of Idaho’s automated manufacturing lab on the North Idaho College campus.
The tech hub hopes partnering with the automated manufacturing lab at the University of Idaho and North Idaho College will give students hands-on experience with robots that will prepare them for the manufacturing side of the aerospace industry.
“Understanding that you can have this robot talking to other robots or sending signals to synchronize and build a flow of work productivity is invaluable and we teach that here,” said Daniel Blanchette, a Ph.D. student at the University of Idaho.
If the tech hub grant funding is approved, it would give opportunities to students at the manufacturing automation lab a chance to work with aerospace professionals and create a pipeline to getting jobs in the Inland Northwest.
“It matters to the student because it’s relevant,” said Marita Diffenbaugh, director of innovation at North Idaho College. “It matters to the employer because they have the skills needed to hire, and it matters as a collective as we learn about these new work flows and technologies.”
The tech hub in the Inland Northwest is competing with 19 other tech hubs across the country for $220 million in federal funding. The federal government will announce who is moving on to the next stage of the application process early next year.
COPYRIGHT 2025 BY KXLY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.
