business backgrounder | industry
As of mid-January,
Air Washington had trained
2,441 workers,
including 357 veterans,
in skills such as
advanced manufacturing
expansion alone is
l i st , h e l a n d e d
helping the supplia job at Angeles
of composites,
ers have the skilled
Composite Tech
electronics, avionics,
workforce they need to
nologies, Inc.
aircraft assembly
compete.”
(ACTI), which man
and aircraft maintenance.
The technicians trained
ufactures composite
through Air Washington
components for Boeing,
funding and coordination are
Lockheed-Martin and Bomcertified by the Federal Aviation
bardier Aerospace.
Administration in maintenance, repair
“I signed up for the classes just
and operations. They can work for Boeing, a
because composites are new and exciting,”
commercial airline or any of the 1,400-some aerospace
Weishorn said. “Then I happened to get a job here
companies spread across all but four counties in Washington,
doing composites. The school called and said, ‘You