Despite tanker loss, opportunity calls

PASCAGOULA, Miss. - Despite the Northrop Grumman/EADS decision to drop out of the $40 billion competition to build tankers for the Air Force, two local leaders say Jackson County is still ripe for aerospace development. George Freeland, executive director of the Jackson County Economic Development Foundation, said the Gulf Coast region "still possesses all the ingredients necessary to support new aerospace and technical development and job creation." Jerry St. Pe, former president of Ingalls Shipbuilding, agreed, saying that there are "other opportunities in this whole sphere of aerospace technology that this region is ideally positioned to take advantage of." Northrop and EADS planned to build the tankers in nearby Mobile, Ala. (Source: Mississippi Press, 03/09/10)