Aerospace and defense is arguably the largest industry in Southern Arizona with 20,000 to 30,000 people employed at about 200 companies that bring in revenues totalling between $5 billion and $6 billion annually, according to Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities Inc. (TREO).
Tucson is among the top five metro areas in the United States for its concentration of companies and employees in aerospace and defense.
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For job seekers with active federal or military security clearances, the website Clearancejobs.com ranks Tucson No. 5 for defense jobs.
The aerospace and defense industry has enjoyed a history in Tucson dating back to the 1925 opening of Davis-Monthan Field, as it was known at the time. It was the nation’s first municipal airport.
Then, in the early 1950s, billionaire-aviator Howard Hughes was persuaded to move his Hughes Aircraft manufacturing plant from California to Tucson. That plant south of Tucson International Airport is now headquarters for Raytheon Missile Systems.
But those early decisions that have helped to make Tucson an aerospace hub were made for a reason.
"I think it generally comes back to the weather," said Michael Drake, director of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona. "We typically have clear skies which made Tucson an excellent choice for astronomy in the 1910s and 1920s. That’s all that space was then, you could just look at it."
Shortly after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, universities experienced huge expansions in their space programs.
The UA landed a professor named Gerard Kuiper, whose interest was the study of planets. At the time some astronomers considered Kuiper’s research second rate, according to Drake.
"Around 1960, real astronomers didn’t look at planets," he said. "Real astronomers looked at galaxies and stars."
So while others were looking elsewhere, Kuiper discovered two moons of planets in the solar system, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Mars and the existence of a methane-laced atmosphere above Saturn’s moon Titan in 1944.
Kuiper also pioneered airborne infrared observing using a Convair 990 aircraft in the 1960s. He also helped get the United States to the moon by identifying landing sites for the Apollo program. The Kuiper Crater on the moon bears his name.
Fast forward to today where the UA is currently running the Phoenix Mars Lander mission. It’s the first university to run a mission on another planet. It’s also the world’s foremost planetary university.
"Had planetary astronomy been viewed by the astronomy community as a real science we wouldn’t be where we are today," Drake said. "He (Kuiper) really put us in position to be at the forefront early on."
The UA ranks in the top 10 of NASA grant recipients and is No. 1 in space science research. Of universities funded by NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the UA receives more grants than the next nine combined, according to TREO
Drake believes the presence of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory has helped create a good amount of jobs in the area.
"The jobs that we create are high-paying jobs that in turn support other jobs in the community," he said.
Creating the jobs and graduating people who can do those jobs are at the forefront of concerns for David Welsh, a senior vice president of strategic partnerships at TREO and part of the Aerospace Advisory Council.
TREO helped establish the Aerospace Advisory Council that brings industry leaders Raytheon, Honeywell, Northup Grumman, Lockheed Martin and others together. They meet and discuss regional concerns and issues.
"The aerospace companies’ main concern right now is talent," Welsh said. "They’re concerned with keeping the talent they have, getting new talent in and dealing with an aging workforce."
Welsh said aerospace is fundamental to the area’s economy, but because of that, it can easily go overlooked.
"Aerospace is one of the more under-recognized and under-appreciated sectors in our community," he said. "People maybe take Raytheon for granted, they’ll think ‘it’s been here forever and it will be here forever. Where could they go? What could happen?’ All you have to do is point to the building IBM used to be in. You can never take any of this for granted. Recruiting companies is great, but if you don’t retain the pillars that you have, you are going to have a problem."
Because staffing is an issue every company faces, the council is working on ideas the companies might be able to implement jointly instead of competing against each other.
"We’re talking about the possibility of some sort of job board between them that if one company has a surplus of people in one area and another has a need we can fill it," Welsh said.
Looking to the future, Welsh sees the industry continue to be strong and while defense is a large amount of the aerospace in the community, he sees civil space playing a larger role than it has.
Civil space companies such as Tucson start-up Paragon Space Development are looking to fulfill Welsh’s vision.
Taber MacCallum, chief executive officer of Paragon, says his company’s primary mission is working on life support in extreme environments.
"It doesn’t get any more extreme than space," he said. "I think there are different stages life forms go through and leaving the planet of origin is the ultimate."
MacCallum says there are two fundamental challenges to doing that:
• Getting off the planet
• Staying alive once you’ve left
"There were plenty of rocket scientists doing getting-off-the-planet work, so I stuck with my fascination of staying alive once you’ve left," he said.
Paragon is currently helping develop the next version of the space suit for the Orion Project, NASA’s next space craft for human exploration. NASA issued the contract earlier this summer.
"There is just groundbreaking work going on in Tucson," MacCallum said.
He is also proud that Paragon received a Governor’s Innovation Award last year.
"It was amazing," he said. "Phoenix must have five times the population Tucson does, but Tucson companies won around five times more awards in innovation than the Phoenix companies did."
MacCallum hopes in the future Arizona will begin to see itself not competing against other states but competing globally.
"I would love to see some of the federal rules that make it difficult for us to compete globally become more relaxed," he said. "Because we can’t share technology with anyone else, without consent from the state department – which can be difficult to obtain – other countries are developing their own technology. There is now on the market a satellite that is free of any U.S. technology so it can be launched with anyone’s rockets. When it becomes a selling point that there is no U.S. tech on it, there is something wrong."
The need for talent is also felt by MacCallum, but he said hiring people from all over the country to work here would be easier if we made Tucson a more attractive place to live.
He cites downtown redevelopment as an example. Most people might not equate the aerospace industry with having a downtown that is a nice place to go in the evenings but it becomes an issue for businesses such as Paragon.
"There are only a few places that offer these high-paying jobs and if people can get the same pay with a better quality of life elsewhere they will take it," he said.
Justin Williams, Southern Arizona director of the Arizona Technology Council, is working on improving the quality of life for people in that sector.
"It’s an unmet need in the budgeting process of the economic development agencies," Williams said. "There are so many pieces to creating a healthy, vibrant, attractive destination for companies and employees. We want to provide young talented professionals with a place where they want to live and work. Those activities are similarly appealing to the employers. We think we can add value for retention and attraction of companies."
One big step in attracting companies the tech council made was getting the passage of an expanded research and development tax credit in Arizona that now matches that of California.
"Arizona now is in the top 3 most robust programs in the country for research and development credits," he said. "It’s just one thing we are doing that will directly impact the recruiting ability of organizations like TREO." Aerospace and • • • • • • • • • •
Defense Major Employers
11,184 employees Davis-Monthan Air Force Base
8,233 employeesHoneywell Aerospace
750 employeesBombardier Aerospace
614 employeesNorthrup Grumman (Sierra Vista)
582 employees Evergreen Air Center
423 employees Universal Avionics Systems
250 employeesSargent Controls & Aerospace
244 employeesAbrams Airborne Manufacturing Inc.
240 employeesGlobal Aircraft Solutions Inc.
155 employees
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