Believe It.
Yes, newsletter reader, there IS aerospace and aviation in Wisconsin and I'll prove it to you. This year I'm Chairman of the Aerospace States Association, a group that advocates for this industry cluster when it comes to both industry regulations and standards, and recruiting more interested, talented workers. This week I made three stops at WI aviation and aerospace companies, though there are about 300 companies in our state working in this high-flying sector. At Patriot Taxiway Industries in Lomira, which won the SCORE Outstanding Veteran-Owned Business of the Year Award, they make lots of LED lights. Their latest shipment (which I got to inspect) will be to Marine One the President's helicopter- they're replacing all the lights with better ones made right here in Wisconsin!
We also visited Fives Giddings & Lewis of Fond du Lac, which makes the machines that make plane engines and all sorts of aviation-related things. (They've been in Fond du Lac since 1859 and make some big big stuff.) We also stopped at the Fond du Lac airport and Wausau Equipment, which has a plant in Fond du Lac and New Berlin. They make and sell the gigantic plows and runway de-icing trucks that allow us to safely take to the skies.
When other states think about aviation and aerospace, their focus is on huge corporations like Boeing or Lockheed. Our Wisconsin story is different: we have hundreds of small suppliers across the aerospace supply chain, largely in advanced manufacturing. These three manufacturers are great examples of the numerous companies that it takes to support the planes and rockets that usually hog the attention. Anyone who has ever watched Apollo 13 knows that the failure of just one tiny part can imperil the entire mission and the lives of our astronauts. I'm proud that those little pieces are manufactured with precision and excellence right here in Wisconsin.
From Wausau the company to Wausau the place- we headed to North Central Technical College this week on a continued to mission to stop opioid addictions from killing more people. I was pleased to learn that NTC had just been judged the 2nd best online college in America, and was equally pleased when our task force unanimously accepted some new recommendations for fighting drugs here in Wisconsin. Look for those recommendations, like creating a "Priceline.com-style" web portal for providers to use when finding a detox or treatment or counselor or housing option for an addicted patient to use in real time, to be fleshed out and adopted by the state soon!
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