Montebello blimp maker expands
Worldwide Aeros opens a new facility to house work on a 66-ton rigid airship it has begun building.
Worldwide Aeros Corp., the Montebello developer and maker of blimps used for surveillance, advertising and transport, opened a 45,000-square-foot engineering facility to house work underway on a mammoth 66-ton rigid airship.
The company is expanding in part to build the blimp-like aircraft, which would travel at about 120 mph and could take off and land vertically.
The idea is that the airship will ferry multi-ton cargo loads back and forth for the military.
The new facility, adjacent to Aeros’ headquarters and dubbed the Center of Innovation, opened Tuesday in a ceremony attended by state politicians.
Rep. Grace F. Napolitano (D-norwalk), who helped secure $15.5 million in federal funding for the airship, was in attendance and took a tour of the building.
“Stronger U.S. manufacturing is a critical part of our economic recovery,” Napolitano said in a statement.
Aeros has 90 employees and said it is looking to hire more engineers and technicians for the new facility.
“Our legacy is to create flying machines that no one else dreamed about,” Igor Pasternak, Aeros’ president and chief executive, said in a statement.
Pasternak, 47, started the company in 1987 in Ukraine. He immigrated to U.S. in 1993 and continued to build the business in Southern California.