Two and a half months after Piedmont Triad International Airport landed the state’s biggest economic development project, JetZero has begun hiring the first of the 14,574 workers it’s projecting for its futuristic jet factory.
The Long Beach, California-based aviation startup plans to break ground in next year’s second quarter, JetZero President and COO Dan De Silva told reporters after a Greensboro Chamber of Commerce gathering on Wednesday. The company plans to build the plane from the ground up on more than 600 acres at the Greensboro airport.
The company is refitting a building owned by the airport authority as part of hiring engineers to design the new plane, which will be made of composite materials lighter than traditional aviation materials such as aluminum, according to De Silva.
“Our airplane will be 70% to 75% composite by weight, which means that we have a very strong focus on composite development,’’ he said. “The first thing we’re going to do here is composite research and development.’’
The company’s composite research center “will start ahead of everything else, and then the factory goes after that,’’ he said. “It’s going to be building phases to follow our production increase.’’
The Greensboro chamber is helping JetZero recruit workers. Among eight jobs posted on the chamber’s website, the company is seeking a construction project manager who will “have the unique opportunity to shape a state-of-the-art aerospace manufacturing facility from the ground up.’’
“You’ll define standards, lead cross-functional teams, and set the bar for how we build the next generation of sustainable aircraft production sites,’’ said the posting for the job with estimated annual pay of $110,000 to $140,000.
After considering sites in 17 states, JetZero announced its selection of Greensboro in mid-June. It pledged to invest $4.7 billion and top 14,500 in hiring over the next decade. The jobs in North Carolina will pay an average wage of $89,340, or 48% more than Guilford County’s current average of $60,195. The jobs start at $18.75 an hour, or $39,000 a year.
In exchange, the company is getting a $1.157 billion state incentive package that pays off over 37 years, hinged on hitting job and investment targets. The company could score $784.7 million in local incentives from Greensboro and Guilford County, mostly property taxes that the company could skip.
