When you think of Kentucky exports, several things probably come to mind, including cars, bourbon and horses. You might not, however, think about turbine engines, satellite receiver dishes, and structural components of helicopters and airplanes.
In recent years, one industry has surpassed both bourbon and car parts when it comes to Kentucky exports: aerospace products. Last year, Kentucky exported $7.8 billion in aerospace parts and products, while bourbon, automobiles and car parts combined totaled just under $7 billion. Those numbers are only increasing. Last year Kentucky saw exports in aerospace products grow 38 percent from 2013.
The story doesn’t end there. Kentucky has a world-recognized space engineering program at Morehead State University. Morehead State, along with KYSpace, a consortium of universities across the Bluegrass, has built and flown five satellites to date. The Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation in Lexington is one of only four small companies in the United States to have signed a space act agreement with NASA, allowing it access to experimental platforms (built in Kentucky) to operate on the International Space Station. With Space Tango, another Lexington-based entity, Kentucky has an accelerator program specifically designed to grow space businesses.
Kentucky is becoming a leader in “exomedicine” – zero gravity medical treatment and research – with high school students at schools in Louisville having flown experiments in space. The Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and NKU’s School of Informatics are anchor partners in a nationally recognized effort to grow the aerospace manufacturing industry in the southwestern Ohio/NKy region.
Our challenge is this: how do we begin to leverage these various aerospace efforts into one comprehensive strategy that includes technology, entrepreneurship, manufacturing, workforce development, economic development, government and more?
On Tuesday, March 31, in Morehead, “IdeaFestival Aerospace” will attempt to start this conversation. IdeaFestival is known as “a celebration for the intellectually curious” and “an eclectic network of global thinkers and one-of-a-kind innovators bound together by an intense curiosity about what is impacting and shaping the future of business, technology, design, science, philosophy and education.”
Speakers and exhibitors from the aerospace industry, research centers and state government will discuss a number of aerospace initiatives. MSU Professor Bob Twiggs will introduce the technology behind micro-satellites, like the ones made in Morehead that orbit the earth. KSTC’s Kris Kimmel will talk about the Kentucky Space partnership and exodmedicine. Greg Higdon of the Kentucky Association of Manufacturing will moderate a panel discussion about the various educational initiatives supporting aerospace education and workforce development.
From the entrepreneur side, the Kentucky Innovation Network will introduce and solicit ideas about entrepreneurship and aerospace, and there will be an in-depth analysis on Kentucky’s aerospace exports. Attendees will learn about the soon-to-be-opened Innovation Launchpad, a business incubator opening in downtown Morehead with a wing devoted to aerospace entrepreneurs – complete with lab space and access to a world-recognized MSU professor.
At the conclusion of the day’s events, attendees will be able to tour MSU’s Space Science Center and see (touch and hold) multimillion dollar satellites and visit the satellite tracking station that recently tracked and commandeered a lost comet explorer that had once sailed through the tail of Haley’s Comet.
Most importantly, the day will serve as an opportunity to network. A “who’s who” of industry experts, entrepreneurs, industry representatives, economic developers and more will attend.
Whether you’re an aerospace expert, a small-business owner or just someone interested in learning more about Kentucky’s fascinating role in the industry, I encourage you to join us for IdeaFestival Aerospace. It’ll be a first-hand look at how Kentucky is reaching for the stars.
To learn more about this out-of-this-world conference, contact Johnathan Gay with the Kentucky Innovation Network at Morehead office at johnathan@kyinnovation.com. To register or to become an exhibitor, contact Ellie Puckett at ellie@kyinnovation.com or simply register here.
Johnathan Gay is an attorney and the director of the Kentucky Innovation Network office at Morehead State University. To learn more about the Kentucky Innovation Network or to get involved in entrepreneurial projects, click here.
To read more of Johnathan Gay, click here.