Last week, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt and Lt. Governor Matt Pinnell met with major aerospace companies at the Farnborough International Airshow. The aerospace and defense industry is Oklahoma’s second largest and fastest growing sector. In the last five years, Oklahoma attracted $1.9 billion in new investment for the state and more than 7,700 new jobs for Oklahomans.  

“This show is a great opportunity for us to take Oklahoma to the world,” said Governor Stitt. “We want everyone to know that Oklahoma is the most business-friendly state in the nation, and conversations we had at the air show made it clear that global companies are looking at Oklahoma to set up shop.” 

“It was an honor to represent Oklahoma at the largest airshow in the world, where we recruited new jobs and expanded our global aerospace footprint,” said Lt. Governor Pinnell. “There were industry leaders present from over 100 different countries, and we had great conversations about why Oklahoma is a valuable partner in doing business. We will continue to bring Oklahoma to the world and the world to Oklahoma.” 

Oklahoma was well represented with representatives from 15 Oklahoma-based aerospace and defense companies and nine organizations including higher education institutions, airports and economic development organizations. 

“The Oklahoma delegation had more than 70 meetings with companies interested in learning more about doing business in our state,” said Leshia Pearson, Director of Aerospace & Defense, Commerce. “This combined with major announcements for three of our partner companies – Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, MST Manufacturing and Nomad Defense – is proof that Oklahoma is top of mind for aerospace and defense companies considering expansion.” 

Home to more than 1,100 companies and employing more than 120,000 Oklahomans, Oklahoma is known as the MRO capital of the world. Both the world’s largest commercial airline MRO facility (American Airlines Tech Ops – Tulsa) and the largest Department of Defense air depot (Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex at Tinker Air Force Base) are located in Oklahoma. Oklahoma has made intentional investment in its education system to support the development of aerospace and defense talent, including the best high school aviation program in the nation. Higher education institutions in Oklahoma are graduating an average of nearly 4,900 aerospace and engineering graduates annually while the Oklahoma CareerTech system anticipates more than 10,000 graduates from aerospace-related programs over the next five years.