,,,,,,,Have you seen this boys "Columbus lands high-flying deal
Company hopes to initially hire 250, expand to 1,000 in 5 years
By Tony Adams, Staff Writer
It didn't have clearance to take off for a demonstration flight Monday morning at Muscogee technology park in east Columbus. The sky was overcast and the wind too breezy, said Mike Lawson, president the Techsphere Systems International.
But Lawson's company is betting sales of its spherical eye-in-the-sky airships will soar to at least $1 billion in sales within three to five years. And it's taking Columbus along for the ride, with initial creation of 250 jobs and up to 1,000 jobs within five years.
'One billion dollars is a very safe statement, " Lawson said after Techsphere's foraml introduction to teh community on dusty ground in teh middle os the city's new tech park. "The telecommunications industry is a $450 billion a year wireless industry, and if we took 1 percent of that business, that's 4.5 billion annually."
But that's only part of the sphere.
Lawson, who is making Columbus firm's worldwide headquarters, plans to target several other sectors that were thrust to the forfront following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on teh United States. Homeland security agancies, law enforcement and the U.S military are potential customers, he said.
'When we first started, our goal and objective, really, was a to help Third World countries in telecommunications," said lawson, whose son, Kevin, is a U.S. marine private staioned in Iraq. "After 9/11, the business plan just toally went upside down on us. There was a real need for national security."
Techsphere will locate its manufacturing plant on 30 acres of the technology park, located off Macon Road. Work will being within two weeks, said Lawson, who plans to be up and running in less than 120 days.
"The project is moving so fast," he said.
A hallmark of the company will be a 30-story-high hangar that can accomodate an airship 300 feet in diameter. The company may use other buildings around Columbus in the interim.
The city's proximity for Fort Benning was a factor in its favor, Lawson said. The company plans to work with teh post's Soldier Battle Lab to test and evaluate airships for military use.
Techsphere also joining with Georgia Tech, to hone the prototype so it can hover higher and longer - up to a year - with no crew. The sphere has been flown manned to a height of 21,000 feet, with hopes of taking it as high as 40,000 feet next year, said inventor/designer Hokan Colting of Newmarket, Ontario - based 21st Century Airships Inc.
'you need the sphere shape to be able to go up to higher altitudes," said Colting, who licensed the technology to Techsphere and will work as a consultant to the company. "Eventually, we're going to go 60,000 to 70,000 feet. That's double where traditional airliners fly."
Techsphere will use the Georgia Department of Labor to recruit employees, while the state's Quickstart program, offered locally at Columbus Technical College, will train them. The company plans to attend the AUSA Job Fair at Fort Benning on May 13.
Lawson said 80 percent of the work force will be textile-related because of the tough outer fabric that must be sewn to cover the interior helium bag. The other 20 percent will be geared toward researching, developing and testing hightech fuel cells, engines and sensors. No salary range has been set, he said.
"It's going to be good news for some of the laid-off textile owrkers that we have, " said Mikell Fryer, manager of the Georgia labor Department's Columbus Career Center. "We've already done some preparation as far as looking at that group of people to see what we have in the database, and we knwo they will be able to cross those skills over and get into a more high-tech position." |
