A Yadkinville company has been awarded a $3.4 million military defense contract to develop a new class of aircraft sealants for stealth fighter jets.
The Yadkin Ripple
A Yadkinville company has been awarded a $3.4 million military defense contract to develop a new class of aircraft sealants for stealth fighter jets.
U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-Banner Elk, said last week that the money from a defense appropriations bill approved by the House of Representatives will fund research and development at NanoTech-Labs, adding that it has the potential to create new jobs in the area.
“Once NanoTechLabs completes its research, the military will likely want to develop more of their products,” Foxx said in a prepared statement.
The defense contract is welcome news to a county that has been beset in recent years with layoffs and plant closures as Yadkin’s industrial base continues to decline. Bobby Todd, executive director of the Yadkin County Chamber of Commerce, said that the federal funds will help create high-tech jobs that pay well above the area’s average wage.
NanoTechLabs, which makes “nanomaterials” for the aerospace industry and conducts research and development for the federal government, will use the federal money to develop an aircraft sealant that avoids radar detector. The company moved its corporate offices last August from Winston-Salem to Yadkinville to an 8,000-square-foot building in the J.S. Industrial Park on Maple Street.
In a unrelated development, NanoTechLabs has received $49,900 from the N.C. Small Business Fund. The money is part of a project that is sponsored by the U.S. Air Force.
