US airport operator Central West Virginia Regional Airport Authority is working on multiple funding opportunities for the building of electric infrastructure at a number of West Virginia locations. One such is an agreement with architecture, engineering and field services company Thrasher, with sub-consultants Airport Design Consultants and Marshall University Centre for Business and Economic Research, that continues work conducted over the last six weeks to prepare Charleston's Yeager airport (CRW) and the state of West Virginia for eVTOL aircraft operations.

This work includes establishing an intrastate air taxi service and an eVTOL centre of excellence. The overall vision is for CRW to become a hub for future air taxi services with airline connections, and the airport will serve as a centre of excellence for eVTOL training and operations.

Yeager airport is working with Marshall University, private companies and others to explore opening the world's first aerospace battery research centre, and Thrasher will work with CRW to identify potential sites and conduct design work for aerospace components manufacturing facilities.

Thrasher and its sub-consultants will design eVTOL electric infrastructure, charging stations, landing pad facilities, vertiports, heliports, flight simulators and associated support infrastructure at several locations.

An electrification project will see the design and construction of electrical infrastructure, landing pad and aircraft charging stations. It also aims to create an aerospace economic development centre - a 10,000 sq ft hangar for electric and other aircraft, a terminal building for general aviation users, an innovation centre, and an aerospace business incubator and accelerator that will serve as a hub for the state.

Airport director Nick Keller says the agreement is a significant milestone for CRW's zero-emissions aviation industry: “This work, and our partnership with the Thrasher Group, will ensure the state of West Virginia is at the forefront of the emerging eVTOL industry, attracting good paying high tech aerospace jobs to the Mountain State.”

Thrasher director of marketing Heidi Handley adds: “As a West Virginia-based firm, it is exciting to be a part of an innovative project with such big implications for our state. The introduction of eVTOL truly can reshape the aerospace industry and greatly impact the economy throughout West Virginia. This will bring new, well paying jobs, not only in the aviation space but through the construction and manufacturing industries that support eVTOL.”

Yeager airport is responsible for nearly 3,000 jobs and has a $225 million economic impact in the state. Flight operators include American, Delta, Spirit and United Airlines.