The hope for hundreds of new jobs in Berlin making aircraft parts has apparently evaporated. NHPR’s Chris Jensen reports.
Last year a new start-up company called Kestrel Aircraft said it was considering building parts in Berlin.
CEO Alan Klapmeier said the plant might be located next to the new biomass plant.
It would use heat from that facility to produce high-tech, composite bodies for the new plane.
That would mean at least 150 to 200 jobs, Klapmeier said.
The six-to-eight passenger plane would be assembled nearby in Maine.
But Wisconsin has lured Kestrel away, a Kestrel spokeswoman confirmed this morning.
The official announcement is being made in Wisconsin which provided a wide range of economic incentives.
Assembling the plane in Wisconsin is likely to make it too expensive to build parts in Berlin and ship them more than 1,000 miles.
Kestrel is a new company and it is still developing its first plane.
However, Klapmeier has a long history in aviation.
For NHPR News this is Chris Jensen
