newsletterGORILLA

...Mississippi State University President Robert Foglesong sees it.
...He looks at South Mississippi’s aerospace efforts and similar aviation pushes in nearby areas
along the I-10 corridor and it’s clear to him a stretch of the Gulf Coast could wind up as the
“gorilla” of the nation’s air and space activities.
...And he’d like engineering-oriented MSU to play a role.
...“We should be more engaged, in my view, than we have been and that’s a priority,” he said.
When a prospect comes to South Mississippi the availability of MSU expertise should be part of
the pitch. “We would like to be sitting in the row behind the leadership down there.”
...Foglesong is just one of the many who have recognize the growing aerospace corridor along a
four-state stretch of the Gulf Coast. The region includes RDT&E activities in aerospace and
related fields, such as geospatial, advanced materials and weapons development, and operations
of some of the biggest names in the industry.
...The activity in the region has picked up in recent years. In New Orleans, Michoud is being
remade as a hub for NASA’s Constellation program. This past January Northrop Grumman
announced it’s teamed up with the University of New Orleans’ National Center for Advanced
Manufacturing to develop and test new ways to produce large composite structures for future
space transportation systems.
...In Mobile this year EADS opened its large engineering center at the Brookley Industrial
Complex. The European company and its American partner, Northrop Grumman, will build
aerial refueling tankers in Mobile if the team wins an Air Force contract.
...In Northwest Florida, weapons-developer Eglin Air Force base recently announced a plan to
create a 100-acre science and technology park just outside the base. It will be a central location
where university, federal and corporate scientists and technicians can work together on advanced
military weapons technologies.
...Economic leaders in South Mississippi have taken note.
...Aerospace companies with operations in South Mississippi in January gathered at the Northrop
Grumman Unmanned Systems Center in Moss Point to brainstorm. The meeting, hosted by the
six-county Mississippi Gulf Coast Alliance for Economic Development, included representatives
from NASA’s Stennis Space Center, MSU, Northrop Grumman, Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney
and BAE Systems.
...They agreed South Mississippi, home of Stennis Space Center, a new composites consortium
and UAV center, is an active location within the broader aerospace region that has niche
expertise. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne builds the RS-68 at Stennis Space Center and is involved
in a variety of test activities at the facility; Lockheed-Martin builds satellite components; Rolls-
Royce operates a propeller foundry in Pascagoula and will be testing jet engines at Stennis Space
Center; and Northrop Grumman builds Global Hawks and Fire Scouts in Moss Point. The fourth
largest defense contractor in the nation, BAE Systems, has an operation in Gautier that focuses
on work with the Navy, but the company itself is a major aerospace player.
...“I think the connective tissue right now is just developing,” said Foglesong, who sees the
synergies in all the activities in South Mississippi and the broader Gulf Coast. “Right now there
are a lot of platoons down there … that are kind of separated geographically and the trick is to
try to get all those platoons now lined up in a company (in the military sense) … I think there’s a
corridor down there that could become the gorilla for air and space involvement.”
...That MSU wants to get involved in no surprise. Aerospace research is a key activity for the
university. It’s the home of Raspet Flight Research Laboratory, which has a national reputation.
It has worked with Stennis Space Center and Gulfport’s Seemann Composites.
...The university already has a foot in the door through its geospatial work at Stennis. But the
presence is not as great as the university would like.
...“Part of the dilemma that we have is we’re not in residence there and so we have to figure out
how to either be bedded down in that area in a way that we have a constant presence or at least
a virtual presence,” he said.
...One of the impediments to the growth of the Gulf Coast technology corridor is that the
separate areas of the Gulf Coast don’t routinely work together. But he thinks the payoff can
overcome the turf mentality.
...“I think at the end of the day, we don’t bring all of the expertise. We bring a lot of it, but we
should reach out to those areas where there’s expertise – in other states even. There’s no reason
we can’t collaborate with other universities where they have centers of excellence that we don’t
possess,” he said. – Tcp

April 2007