On July 25, 2001, Ohio Governor Bob Taft signed into law House Bill 230, a bill proposed to create a new Aerospace and Defense Council for the state. The Council, which will consist of eleven voting members and a small handful of non-voting members, is intended to serve as an independent, public-private partnership funded by businesses and private institutions in conjunction with governmental financial support. This renewed commitment to the development of aerospace technology will likely have a significant impact on machine manufacturers and machine shop users around the globe.
Frank Samuel, Science and Technology Advisor to Governor Taft, has responsibility for overseeing and forming Ohio’s new Aerospace and Defense Council. He has been the Science and Technology Advisor to Governor Taft since August 2000. For five and a half years prior to that role, he served as President of the Edison Biotechnology Center, with offices in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. In addition to his role as Science and Technology Advisor, Samuel serves as Chairperson for the Technology Action Board and the Biomedical Research and Technology Transfer Commission.
Tapping into Funding Resources
Samuel sees the new Aerospace and Defense Council as an important step in involving the private sector in matters of defense work throughout the state. The move was in response to the decline in budgets and staffing that have affected Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton and NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. In recent years, each of these agencies has experienced a decline of approximately one-third total workforce, a result of Federal budgetary cutbacks.
Governor Taft saw merit in the opportunity to get businesses involved in the effort. “He was concerned from the beginning that it be lead by the community leaders, the business leaders in the Miami Valley and in the northeast Ohio region,” says Samuel. “It was a situation in which there was a community of interest and a recognition that the business leaders were really key to this whole enterprise.”
In forming the Council, Governor Taft hopes to promote the state’s role in the national aerospace industry, thereby strengthening Ohio’s aerospace facilities. The primary objective of the Council is to get more Federal funding for projects at Wright-Patterson and NASA Glenn, and to keep the funding through viable research and developments in aerospace and defense technology. The Council will be involved in finding ways to apply technologies created at these two institutions for the benefit of the Ohio economy, apart from employment benefits, which are evident.
Primary Objectives of the Council
The state has ninety days from when bill was signed into law to create the Council. Once established, that group will be responsible for six primary objectives:
- Increasing Federal funding for research and development conducted at Federal installations in the state
- Increasing the operational presence of defense and aerospace activities within the state, where appropriate
- Creating and improving economic opportunities for aerospace and defense companies and their workers
- Advising the Governor, the General Assembly and other key state officers of the policies and activities needed to achieve the Council’s goals
- Encouraging collaboration between Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and NASA Glenn Research Center on projects of major strategic importance to the Department of Defense and NASA
- Acting as the advocate with Congress, the General Assembly, regional and local leaders and the general public for aerospace and defense issues affecting Ohio’s economy
A Leading State in Aerospace Research
The state’s heightened commitment to aerospace research will have a noticeable impact on the aerospace industry in and around Ohio, a state known globally as a major industrial machining hub. “It’s clear that Ohio is an extremely significant state in aerospace and defense,” notes Samuel.
“Several billion dollars are spent on defense R&D and defense procurement here in this state,” Samuel says. “And that commitment has paid off in terms of results. Studies back up Ohio’s importance in the industry. The National Science Foundation has rated the state third in aerospace and defense research and development.
The Effect on Manufacturers and Machine Shops
It is Samuel’s hope that the overall effort of state congressional and gubernatorial leadership will be an influx of Federal dollars to Ohio aerospace manufacturers, and to their customers and suppliers both in and out of the state. Says Samuel, “That’s one of the major objectives that we have.”
The desire is that the public-private partnership fostered by the Council will encourage Ohio manufacturers like Makino to work with the state to foster and develop ideas. By involving state institutions directly in business relationships with the communities, the best attributes of the public and private sector will be brought together for the advancement of ideas, technology and production.
In correspondence with Governor Taft, Makino President Don Lane says he is pleased that the Governor recognizes “how important aerospace technology is to the growth and prosperity of the region and I believe that an aerospace council would provide stimulus to the financial well being of…the economy of our community and our state. All of these (previously noted) resources provide Ohio with a base of technical expertise that can be utilized to promote industry and growth.”
To the machine manufacturer and the machine shop user in the aerospace industry, the desired effect of Ohio’s aerospace and defense initiatives is a noticeable increase in sales, employment and productivity. It is hoped that the Council will play into that. “I think a significant part of what the Council will be doing is putting more public advocacy behind what the industry is now doing,” Samuel speculates. “And machining and metalworking are important elements of that.”
OADC Future
As for the future of the Aerospace and Defense Council? “I’d like to see the Council become a really active, publicly respected advocate for the importance of defense and aerospace employment and economic activity in the state,” Samuel says. “It is probably a sleeping giant as far as most people in the state are concerned.” He adds, “The Air Force Research Laboratory and the associated activities at Wright-Patterson, along with the NASA Glenn Research Center, have got cutting-edge research and cutting-edge technologies, and it is time that they be more widely known.”
Samuel believes that in time the state sees the Council fostering relationships and new technological developments through interaction and collaborations with state institutions around the U.S. as well as the global manufacturers and machine shops in the aerospace industry. He says, “the machine shops and others who actually turn these technologies into products are key.”
Don Lane applauds these efforts to initiate an aerospace council in the state. “I feel there is a definite need to help secure the interests of Ohio corporations and organizations involved in this industry. As a leading global manufacturer of state-of-the-art, high-speed machining centers for various segments of the aerospace market, we stand ready to provide whatever counsel and input is necessary to assure the success of this effort.”
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