AEDC’s 2011 economic impact exceeds $630 million Published Dec. 23, 2011 By Philip Lorenz III AEDC/PA ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. -- Arnold Engineering Development Center's (AEDC) economic impact - which includes AEDC and its remote operating locations - the Hypervelocity Tunnel 9 at White Oak in Silver Spring, Md., and the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex at Moffett Field, Calif. - was $633.8 million for fiscal 2011. Each location impacted the local areas through payroll, secondary jobs created through local spending, and other expenditures for supplies, utilities, fuel and services and the spin-off impact of those purchases. AEDC employed a mixture of active-duty military personnel from the Air Force and Navy; Department of Defense civilians; and contractor personnel, which totaled 2,660 personnel in Fiscal 2011. Of the 2,660 personnel, 61 were active-duty military; nine Air Force Reserve and National Guard; 330 appropriated fund civilian employees (includes general schedule, federal wage board and other military branches); 65 government non-appropriated fund employees; 42 other civilians (credit union, Base Exchange and commissary tenants); and 2,154 contractor and sub-contractor employees. Additionally, using the Tennessee Valley Authority economic impact model methodology, AEDC estimated that more than 1,800 secondary jobs were created in the local area, for a total of 4,496 jobs directly related to AEDC. Examples of secondary jobs include those created by home construction and at local supermarkets, car dealerships and department stores. During Fiscal 2011, the payroll cost for AEDC government and contractor personnel was $279 million. AEDC's direct expenditures - which include utility costs, service contracts with outside vendors and military health insurance paid to local doctors and hospitals - was more than $151 million. Furthermore, the indirect spin-off impact of these direct expenditures is approximately $200 million. The overall economic impact figure does not include more than $93 million paid to the approximately 4,323 retired military personnel living in the local area. In total, this retired pay group generates more than $137 million, including the spin-off effect. Additionally, these figures do not include the impact from test customers like Pratt & Whitney, General Electric or other companies who maintain staff at AEDC to manage tests of their products or participate in the test process. The economic impact data and secondary employment estimates represent AEDC's economic impact during FY 2011, which runs from Oct. 1, 2010 to Sept. 30, 2011. AEDC operates the world's largest complex of ground test facilities with a replacement value of more than $11.3 billion. Editorial Note: Arnold Engineering Development Center is the nation's largest complex of flight simulation test facilities. The center was dedicated in June 1951 by President Harry Truman and named after 5-star General of the Air Force Henry 'Hap' Arnold, visionary leader of the Army Air Forces in World War II and the only airman to hold 5-Star rank. This complex has a replacement value of $11.3 billion for the 30 active test cells located at Arnold Air Force Base, Tenn., and the center's two remote operating locations - the Hypervelocity Tunnel 9 in White Oak, Md., and the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex (NFAC) located on NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. The Tunnel 9 test facilities simulate flight from subsonic to hypersonic speeds at altitudes from sea level to space while NFAC provides a critical capability for aeronautics research, particularly rotorcraft research. Virtually every high performance flight system in use by the Department of Defense today and all NASA manned spacecraft have been tested in AEDC's facilities. Today AEDC is testing the next generation of aircraft and space systems. For more information on AEDC, visit the center's website at www.arnold.af.mil .