FORT WORTH – the aerospace and defense hub

The 2008 ‘Texas’ event will benefit however from a truly ‘nation-wide’ visitor attendance, especially benefiting from its central location. Texas is a national leader in the aerospace & aviation industries (for development, production & operations in aircraft, spacecraft, missiles & defense systems through to related equipment, components & electronics)

• Texas is home to three major airlines – American Airlines (the world’s largest airline), Continental Airlines & Southwest Airlines
• NASA Johnson Space Center (in Houston) – home to US human space flight program – inc lead NASA center for the Space shuttle program & international space station missions.
• United Space Alliance (one of the world’s leading space operations companies) has HQ in Houston & is prime contractor for NASA’s space shuttle program, co owned by Boeing & Lockheed Martin
• Six of the nine top global aerospace & defense companies - Boeing, Lockheed Martin (Fort Worth & San Antonio) , Honeywell, Raytheon, BAE Systems, and Northrop Grumman have operations in Texas. Other key players in Texas include Vought Aircraft Industries, Bell Helicopter Textron, L-3 Communications, Weber Aircraft, Express Jet Holdings, Kitty Hawk Inc, EGL Inc…. but to name a few
• Leading platforms in development & production (based in Texas) include Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey, built in Fort Worth & assembled in Amarillo, TX. Lockheed Martin F/A-22 Raptor fuselage (in partnership with Boeing & Pratt & Whitney) has key production based at the Tactical Aircraft Systems division in Fort Worth.
• In addition the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has its assembly base in Fort Worth & is expected to create 32,000 jobs in Texas as the largest program in Pentagon history (est. cost of US$240billion) - in combination with US Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps & UK Air force & Navy plus includes collaboration from Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, Pratt & Whitney & Rolls Royce.
• Port of San Antonio represents one of the nations leading defense industry parks & includes Boeing Logistics Support Systems (BLSS), Pratt & Whitney & General Electric. Also in San Antonio is the Kelly Aviation Center – joint venture of Lockheed Martin Aircraft & Logistics Centers, General Electric Aircraft Engines & Rolls Royce. KAC is a globally recognized centre of excellence for military engine MRO.
• Texas incorporates over 300 airports - the nation’s 2nd largest state airport system, providing a huge base for civil aviation maintenance engineering.
• Texas carries huge national importance in the military & defense sector – and includes six Air Force Bases (AFB’s), two Naval Stations (NAS’s), and over 530 military aircraft based in state, backed up with unrivalled military aircraft training infrastructure.

The Fort Worth location provides easy local access to the enormous aerospace & aviation communities throughout Texas in key locations such as Dallas, Houston, Austin, El Paso, Abilene, Del Rio, Richardson, Kingsville, Garland, McKinney, San Antonio, Hurst, Waco, Greenville, Irving, Gainesville, Laredo, McAllen and more..

Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport provides easy access (via more than 20 leading airlines) to the nationwide centers of aerospace/aviation industry