Growing the Aerospace Industry

As chairman of SC Aerospace, Steve Townes is deeply involved in the growth of aviation and aerospace companies in not just South Carolina, but throughout the entire Southeast USA. SC Aerospace is a statewide public/private partnership that unites the systemic growth objectives of industry, government, and academia. He will discuss the aerospace ecosystem of companies, educational institutions, and government organizations—and how it takes that full system working together as a coordinated team to achieve meaningful growth. Advanced materials are a natural part of the aerospace ecosystem, of course, since planes are becoming lighter, stronger, faster, and indeed those same technologies find their way into other mobility assets such as cars, trains, and ships. Steve will talk about the aerospace success stories that are being written across the Southeast region, which is now the fastest-growing regional concentration of aerospace and aviation-related companies in the world. Even in his own company, Ranger Aerospace, Steve has recently acquired a large-scale firm that sells and leases air cargo products such as pallets and containers to the world’s airlines.  Headquartered in South Carolina, his company manufactures these mission-essential products in SC, Germany, and China, and has servicing operations at 34 of the world’s Top 50 cargo airports. Townes intends to triple that already global enterprise in the next 6 to 7 years. Over the past 20 years, Ranger Aerospace has spawned three aviation services enterprises with revenues of over $100 Million each.  Finally, to young people and veterans, Steve has some excellent career advice:  “If you learn how to work on or around airplanes, you’ll likely have a well-paid job for life.”  Steve will explain what he means by that, and will offer experienced insights into the burgeoning aerospace sector here in the South, in his trademark “high energy” style.