Issue 3

Summer 2003

Wright State Joins Aerospace R&D Initiative

One hundred years after Orville and Wilbur Wright flew the first powered airplane, the Miami Valley region is seeking to revitalize the aerospace industry that grew up in the inventors' hometown through a new research and development initiative named the Wright Brothers Institute (WBI). The nonprofit organization is intended to promote collaboration between government researchers at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and civilian scientists at regional universities and aerospace companies.

ECONOMIC IMPACT: Workers at the Wright Company, Dayton's first aviation start-up, assemble an airplane in 1911.. Dayton's aerospace economy now exceeds $2.4 billion annually. The new Wright Brothers Institute is an investment in this R&D legacy. (Photo courtesy WSU Special Collections) See enlarged photo

WBI was launched last year by Wright-Patterson and the Dayton Development Coalition. Air Force officials expect the institute to provide more flexibility for collaborations with the private sector, including development planning for future Air Force technologies. Local business leaders hope WBI will attract more research funding to the Miami Valley and stimulate job growth in its aerospace industry.

Wright-Patterson is the largest single-site employer in Ohio. More than 40,000 people in the Miami Valley have jobs linked to the base, with 22,000 directly employed there. Business leaders estimate that Wright-Patterson contributes $2.4 billion annually to the Dayton-area economy.

WBI plans to establish research chairs and other eminent scholar positions at partner universities, recruiting world-class scientists who will direct research programs both at the base and in the community. The Air Force will provide facilities, research teams, and operating funds for them. Money for endowments must be raised through state, university, and private sources.

Last fall, Congress appropriated $17.7 million for WBI research projects at Wright-Patterson, including $2.5 million for biotechnology research at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). Wright State University will collaborate with AFRL's Human Effectiveness Directorate to establish a joint research program in cell dynamics. This interdisciplinary program will study cellular control mechanisms and apply underlying principles elucidated from these studies to develop novel engineering and systems control technologies for the Air Force.

The School of Medicine is conducting a search for a junior scientist who will be the first member of a cell dynamics team that eventually will include a number of AFRL and Wright State scientists under the leadership of an eminent scholar.

"The Wright Brothers Institute envisions a community-based research organization that is an excellent fit for our medical school," says Dean Howard M. Part, M.D. "Our long-standing collaborations with Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, including clinical programs and biomedical research, demonstrate how federal and community partners can benefit from shared investments and effort. The Wright Brothers Institute will attract new technologies and opportunities to our region, ensuring the Miami Valley's continued eminence in aerospace research and development."

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