AIR WASHINGTON About the author In 2010, unemployment in Washington State hit Jim Kershner is the author of four a Great Recession high of 10.4 percent. Yet the Boeing previous books, including Carl Company was having trouble finding skilled workers Maxey: A Fighting Life (University Most of the eleven colleges participating to build its planes, including the revolutionary new of Washington Press), which was in the Air Washington consortium already had 787 Dreamliner. Several of the state’s community a finalist for the Washington State aerospace programs of their own, but winning college presidents began looking for ways to address Book Award in 2009. He has written a $20 million federal grant allowed them to this economic disconnect. One of them, Joe Dunlap of more than 190 historical essays for expand their programs, purchase new equipment, Spokane Community College, found a possible solution HistoryLink.org, The Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History, where he is a staff historian. His forty-year including airplanes, and hire more instructors. The in Washington, D.C., where the U.S. Department of journalism career includes 22 years as a columnist and colleges also cooperated to align their program Labor was preparing to distribute $2 billion in grants for reporter for The Spokesman-Review in Spokane. He has offerings, making it easy for students to move Creating Careers in Aerospace Creating Careers in Aerospace workforce education and retraining as part of President won seven awards from the National Society of Newspaper from one college to another. Barack Obama’s economic stimulus program. Dunlap Columnists. He was born in Denver in 1953 and graduated Besides additional faculty, the colleges took and like-minded executives at ten other colleges applied with a degree in history from Lewis & Clark College in for a grant as a statewide consortium. They asked for Portland, Oregon, in 1975. He and his wife Carol live the innovative step of hiring “navigators” whose the maximum single grant amount—$20 million—and in Spokane. job was to help students get into the right classes, they got it. Four years after the program started, more keep them in those classes when they had study than 4,700 students have graduated and moved into the or personal problems, and to help them get HistoryLink.org, the free online encyclopedia of Washington booming aerospace workforce, changing the lives of jobs when they finished. The result was a high State history, was the nation’s first community history AIR WASHINGTON many for the better. This book recounts how the unusual graduation rate for Air Washington certificate encyclopedia designed expressly for the Internet. It is a educational initiative was put together, and what it taught program of History Ink, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation programs. Many students say the program both educators and students. dedicated to pursuing innovative approaches to historical changed their chances in life, and Boeing and research. History Ink has produced more than a dozen other aerospace companies have praised the HistoryLink books on subjects related to the history of the program. Pieces of aircraft, engines, and mechanical systems are stored in the Pacific Northwest. Spokane Community College Maintenance Building. By Jim Kershner and the Historylink Staff front cover: The Air Washington aerospace education ini- tiative undertaken by a consortium of eleven community and technical colleges spans the state from the wheat fields of the Palouse to the mountains of the Olympic Peninsula. In the inset, student Elaine Tuisila works on a class assignment at Clover Park Technical College. A HistoryLink Book back cover, top: Brian Moen, left, and Chris Chalmers learn to rivet in Spokane Community College’ Airframe and Powerplant program. back cover, below: Inside one of instructor John Mensonides’s classes at Clover Park Technical College. BY JIM KERSHNER AND THE HISTORYLINK STAFF Air Washington Chronology 2008 The U.S. economy is mired in the Great Recession, with effects lasting for years. 2009 The Trade Adjustment Assistance and Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) Grant Program is authorized by Congress as a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. March 30, 2010 President Barack Obama signs the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, which includes an appropriation of $2 billion over four years to fund the TAACCCT program. January 20, 2011 The Department of Labor solicits applications for the first round of the TAACCCT grants. Spring 2011 A consortium of eleven Washington colleges, calling itself Air Washington, works on a grant proposal. April 21, 2011 Air Washington submits its application on deadline day. September 26, 2011 Air Washington receives the maximum grant amount, $20 million. October 1, 2011 Air Washington officially springs to life in what is initially intended as a three-year program. Late 2011 and early 2012 A number of Air Washington programs are up and running. September 2012 Air Washington hits full speed at all eleven colleges. January 2013 A midterm progress report indicates that Air Washington has already exceeded its goal of 2,615 trainees. March 3, 2014 U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez visits Renton and praises Air Washington as a “springboard to the middle class.” July 23, 2014 Spokane Community College’s Dave Cox testifies about Air Washington’s achievements before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Aviation. September 30, 2014 The original grant is set to expire, but the Department of Labor extends Air Washington’s grant for one more year at no additional cost. Mid-2015 The number of Air Washington trainees hits 4,722. September 30, 2015 Air Washington’s projected final expiration date. Creating Careers in Aerospace AIR WASHINGTON BY JIM KERSHNER AND THE HISTORYLINK STAFF Jim Kershner & The HistoryLink Staff © 2015 Spokane Community College This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. License terms may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Printed and bound in the United States First printing: September 2015 A HistoryLink book Published by Air Washington in association with HistoryInk/HistoryLink.org HistoryLink.org, the online encyclopedia of Washington State history This workforce solution was funded (100%) by a grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration. The solution was created by the grantee and does not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Labor. The Department of Labor makes no guarantees, warranties, or assurances of any kind, express or implied, with respect to such information, including any information on linked sites and including, but not limited to, accuracy of the information or its completeness, timeliness, usefulness, adequacy, continued availability, or ownership. This solution is copyrighted by the institution that created it. Internal use by an organization and/or personal use by an individual for noncommercial purposes is permissible. All other uses require the prior authorization of the copyright owner. ISBN: 0-9788302-7-X LCCN: 2015950818 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.∞ title page: A fuselage frames students in Spokane Community College’s aircraft maintenance hangar. facing page: Students in the Spokane Community College Advanced Machining and CNC Lab are framed by examples of some of the projects they must complete to earn their Machining Technology Degrees. following spread: A 787 Dreamliner bound for JetStar Airways in Australia moves along the assembly line at Boeing's Everett plant. CONTENTS Foreword 6 1 A Light Goes On 10 2 Busts and Booms 14 3 An Elephant for Christmas 26 4 From Zero to 100 mph 38 5 What the Students Learned 52 6 Making Air Washington Fly—and Float 62 7 Lives Were Changed 80 8 Beating the Numbers 90 9 A Skilled, Available Workforce 98 Afterword 110 A Note on Sources 112 Acknowledgments 113 Image Credits 114 Index 116 AIR WASHINGTON 6 FOREWORD By Jay Inslee AEROSPACE IS ARGUABLY THE MOST POWERFUL SECTOR IN THE WASHINGTON STATE ECONOMY. THE ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF WASHINGTON’S AEROSPACE CLUSTER HAVE NATIONAL AND GLOBAL IMPORTANCE. EXPANDING THIS HIGH-PAYING INDUSTRY THROUGH NEW TRADE ALLIANCES, NEW INCENTIVES, AND A STRONG WORKFORCE HAS BEEN ONE OF MY HIGHEST PRIORITIES BOTH AS GOVERNOR AND, BEFORE THAT, AS A U.S. CONGRESSMAN. Winning the final assembly of the Boeing 777X and its carbon-fiber wing for Washington was one of my primary goals. But my strategy also has strengthened the state’s position for expansion in unmanned aircraft systems, space exploration, aviation biofuel development, and other emerging industry subsectors. In addition to Boeing, Washington is home to more than 1,350 aerospace and related business establishments that design, manufacture, and service products ranging from tires to carbon fiber structures to inflight entertainment systems. When I took office as governor, I launched Washington’s first ever statewide Aerospace Industry Strategy to ensure that we, as a state, focused efforts on growing and diversifying Washington’s aerospace cluster, cultivating a deep and talented aerospace workforce, fostering a culture of aerospace innovation and collaborating, and coordinating the vast stakeholder network to strengthen Washington’s aerospace “support chain.” The federally funded Air Washington project has been an essential part of this effort because it expanded workforce training programs, created new training facilities, and established clear pathways for students to move into AIR WASHINGTON 7 the aerospace field. Former Governor Christine Gregoire, our federal Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, and many others worked together to bring this $20 million grant to Washington. In 2011, the leaders of eleven Washington community and technical colleges pledged to establish effective and nimble partnerships with our aerospace businesses and train more than 2,600 workers during the three-year Air Washington project.