Aerospace/Defense
Westover Metropolitan Airport awaits OK for 24-hour operations in Chicopee
After three years of work and with the help of two grants, Westover Metropolitan Airport is close to achieving a long-term goal of allowing planes to land overnight. U.S. Air Force officials are scheduled to sign a letter of agreement on Thursday to approve the plan. If everything goes smoothly, the extended hours will begin…
Read MorePentagon spares Westover projects from cuts to pay for Mexican border wall; $46M hangar expected in 2022
A new $46.2 million hangar for inspecting C-5M cargo planes planned at Westover Air Reserve Base has been spared from Pentagon budget cuts President Donald Trump is using to fund a wall on the Mexican border. As a presidential candidate, Trump repeatedly pledged that Mexico would pay for the wall, but when that failed to…
Read MoreMerger of Aerospace Giants Creates Uncertainty, but Perhaps Opportunity – BusinessWest
Since the announcement last month that defense and aerospace giants Raytheon and United Technologies will merge into one firm based in Eastern Mass., few other details have emerged, and questions remain about the impact on the companies’ workforce, particularly those currently based at UTC’s Connecticut plant. But some see potential growth in the merger, which…
Read MoreWhat does Raytheon-UTC merger mean for Western Mass? Impact feared for those who commute to jobs in Windsor Locks, Farmington, Conn.
Combined defense and aerospace giants Raytheon and United Technologies will be headquartered in Massachusetts — not Connecticut. Good news for the state, but what will be the impact of the merger, announced Monday, of the two companies into one company with an estimated $74 billion in sales for 2019 have in Western Massachusetts where many…
Read MoreWestover Air Reserve Base, Rep. Richard Neal welcome $46.2 million maintenance hangar funding (photos, video)
Westover Air Reserve Base aircraft maintainers were out Thursday in 4-degree weather working on the base’s massive C-5M Super Galaxy cargo jets. But more of that work will happen inside once a $46.2 million hangar is built, probably by the year 2022. The new hangar, to be called the Regional ISO Maintenance Hangar, was announced…
Read MoreWestover Air Reserve Base economic impact dips slightly | masslive.com
The 439th Airlift Wing at Westover Air Reserve Base added nearly $194.5 million to the local economy in the 2018 budget year, the base said Tuesday. That includes a payroll of nearly $120 million in 2018 and $13.1 million in construction funding. What it doesn’t include is the economic impact of the 2018 Great New…
Read MoreWestfield-Barnes Regional Airport gets $2.6 million federal grant for drainage
U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, brought news of a $2.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport on Monday. The airport will use the money to improve drainage at Barnes, according to information provided by Neal’s office. “The regional airport in Westfield is increasingly playing a larger and more…
Read MoreBarnes, Westover, Bradley airports look for MGM Springfield casino boost
MGM Springfield’s executives have been out to visit and at least one corporate jet from Las Vegas is scheduled to arrive this weekend and stay over at least one night. But it remains to bee seen how much business MGM Springfield, the $960 million resort casino that opens Friday, will bring to Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport,…
Read MoreHouse-passed National Defense Authorization Act includes $43 million for Westover Air…
A Western Massachusetts air reserve base is poised to receive millions in federal funding to construct a regional ISO maintenance hangar under a $716 billion national defense bill compromise that cleared the U.S. House Thursday. The 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, which now awaits Senate approval, includes funding for an array of Pentagon initiatives and priorities across the…
Read MoreWestover wraps up Air Show drawing crowds of 60,000+
When Lucas and Liam Goncalves saw an information table for the U.S. Air Force they couldn’t wait to meet the people sitting behind it. “Can we go talk to them?” Lucas, 7, asked and already started running as their mother gave them the OK. The two were among some of the most enthusiastic visitors to…
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