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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

Weatherly Aircraft Company Locates Headquarters-Operations in Newton, Kansas

12/24/2018
Weatherly Aircraft Company will locate its headquarters and assembly operations hub in a 26,000 sq. ft. facility at the Newton City-County airport, in Newton, Kansas.

Weatherly Aircraft Company is an American agricultural aircraft manufacturer of planes designed for small grain farming. The company plans to add about 109 jobs in the next five years and invest over $1 million in capital investment.

Gary Beck, General Manager for Weatherly said, “As a first move to make Weatherly Aircraft Company’s new home in Kansas, we have selected hangar space at the Newton City-County Airport as an assembly facility for our model 620-B plane. We appreciate the support we have been provided and will begin production within the first quarter of 2019.”

The City of Newton Commission and the Harvey County Commission voted to approve a five-year lease at a special joint meeting on Dec. 20th. Weatherly Aircraft will take possession in February, 2019 and be operational beginning March, 2019.“Weatherly Aircraft will be a great addition to a growing list of dynamic manufacturers in Newton and Harvey County who are doing business all over the world,” said Bob Myers, Newton City Manager.

Harvey County Economic Development Executive Director, Beth Shelton said, “We are delighted to welcome Weatherly Aircraft to the Newton City-County Airport. This project is a wonderful example of collaboration between our city, county, region, and state working together to facilitate growth and create valuable jobs in Harvey County.”

“This is another terrific development for the city of Newton, for our aviation industry, and for Kansas as a whole,” said Robert North, Interim Secretary of the Kansas Department of Commerce. “Weatherly Aircraft Company’s decision to move their manufacturing operations to Kansas is the right move for them. The amount of new employment opportunities coming to Newton is really extraordinary.”

“We were honored to support Weatherly Aircraft Company’s search for new facilities outside of California by demonstrating opportunities available throughout our region,” said Andrew Nave, Executive Vice President of Economic Development for the Greater Wichita Partnership. “The Newton City-County airport provided an ideal site for this exciting aviation business and the City of Newton, Harvey County Economic Development and the Kansas Department of Commerce worked very collaboratively to make the business case to win this company to our region.”

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