Leadership with the Town of Elizabethtown, Bladen County and Sovereign Aerospace all gathered at the Curtis L. Brown Jr. Airport to officially welcome and begin their new partnership. 

The results of a six month economic initiative between the Town of Elizabethtown, Bladen County, Bladen’s Bloomin’s Agro-Industrial Inc. and Bladen Community College. 

Sovereign Aerospace has officially begun expanding operations to Elizabethtown to offer flight instruction, general aviation maintenance, and has assumed duties as the fixed base operator for Curtis L. Brown, Jr. Airport.

Current expansion plans for the airport include expanding the runway into what is locally known as the “Brian Fordo property,” and adding three hangars to the property to house Sovereign Aerospace, airplane maintenance and aircraft painting operations. According to Town Manager Dane Rideout, the partnership will bring much needed stimulation into the airport’s utilization. 

“Curtis Brown airport right now is in fourth from the bottom [of] least utilized airports in the state. That's not a good stat to be throwing out there, and a lot of that has to do with activity out here. We're going to change that,” said Rideout.“We were literally looking for an organization that had the capacity, the capability and the vision to take it to the next level. So that while those are the ground roots, pieces of what we're looking for, we want outreach into our youth into our schools. We also want to take Elizabethtown from an advanced manufacturing standpoint into the next level and put us on the map using that aerospace industry as sort of an anchor, if you will, and this is the company to do it.” 

Along with plans to bring flight instruction for future pilots, engineers, mechanics and aerospace programs for those transitioning out of the military, Sovereign Aerospace has partnered with Bladen County Community College to begin working on an airport management training program for students to help feed into the future aerospace industry from outside of the pilot’s seat. 

“There's people in your community, and so you got to help us find them. Dr. Lee and I will pour into them, we'll give you the right people to pour into them and we'll get them trained educationally, spiritually, morally, aerospace and academically. And once we find those people, we can just push them up and to get them started,” sharedSovereign Aerospace CEO “Slim” Thompson. 

According to Thompson, their pilot training program began with five planes and 22 trainees and has since grown to 141 active fliers and more than 200 who have completed training but who don’t fly consistently. Their maintenance program is currently growing to help trainees get their A&P and ANPS certifications. 

Sovereign Aerospace currently employs twenty-five people in Moore County and manages a fleet of sixteen planes. According to Chief FInancial Officer Ken Hadaway, the expansions to the Elizabethtown Airport are expected to bring 75 jobs to the area over the course of the next five years, but there is the potential for more in part due to the area and the status of the Curtis L. Brown Jr. Airport. 

“This whole plan was in our two year plan. It's now come full circle to really the front of our agenda about a good 18 months quicker than we anticipated” shared Hadaway. “So we give God glory for that, we are a faith based organization so we thank God for that and where he's working, we want to be part of it. So we say 75 jobs over the next five years, but that could double. We have other ventures  and other conversations going on right now to be able to put more infrastructure here in reference to aerospace. If that moves faster just like this did, it could very well triple according to some of our conversations.” 

Community leaders say they are excited at what the future holds with the partnership, highlighting the partnership has done well so far. 

“I'm so impressed with their integrity and the way that they use their faith in making all of their business decisions. I was very impressed with them from the first meeting that we had with them when they started expressing their interest in getting involved in our school system. And making all of our kids aware of the possibilities that are here,” said Mayor Sylvia Campbell in her address to assembled guests.  “That runway out there opens us up to the whole world and we want to capture every minute of it and expound on that. And Sovereign Aerospace is going to help us do that. So we welcome you and we look forward to a great future with you.”

Construction for their airport expansion and recruiting for their pilots programs are both expected to begin in the coming weeks.