The summit, which kicked off Wednesday and continues today, not only brings attention to the aviation industry and connects students to family-sustaining careers, but is proof that public and private partnerships work, Chernisky said.

During the summit’s opening session, state Sen. Wayne Langerholc, R-Cambria, and state Rep. Jim Rigby, R-Cambria/Somerset, highlighted their support for Aerium’s work, including the Drone814 emergency response program that uses drones to deliver lifesaving medical supplies within minutes to people in need beyond a visual line of sight.

“Johnstown is the epicenter of aviation, and it’s evident in the collaboration across so many levels,” Langerholc said.

Earlier this year, Horizon Aerobotics, a Houston-based autonomous drone intelligence company, chose Johnstown as the future home for the company’s primary remote operation center, a decision that’s expected to create about 250 jobs at the Johnstown airport campus, said Aerium Executive Director Glenn Ponas.

Aerium chairman and chief executive officer Dr. Larry Nulton welcomes visitors to the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport during the Aerium Innovation Summit's opening session Wednesday. Mirror photo by Matt Churella

Horizon Aerobotics is expected to be among the tenants at the future Regional Jet Hangar and Innovation Center along Innovation Drive, a planned 63,000-square-foot facility that will anchor regional jet maintenance and advanced air mobility operations, airport officials said.

U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, the summit’s keynote speaker, is expected to visit that spot during his tour of the airport prior to giving remarks to attendees during today’s closing session.

Denver Hopkins, Horizon Aerobotics’ chief executive officer, said he attended a previous summit at the airport and was stunned by the boldness of local officials and educators who supported the vision of Aerium’s board chairman, Dr. Larry Nulton.

Talking to people about Horizon Aerobotic’s vision of flying medical drones beyond a visual line of sight from a remote operations center was often met with blank stares of disbelief, in large part because of the scale and difficulty of what it meant to put that into play, Hopkins said.

“We went on a tour of this area and met, not just people who accepted our vision, but people who shared our vision before we even walked through the door,” Hopkins said. “That’s what’s exciting to us about being here.”

Later in the day, the Cambria County commissioners and airport manager Cory Cree cut the ribbon for the grand opening of the airport’s exhibit hall, in the upper hangar.

Ponas said the hall allows airport officials to bring together partners from across the region to create an ecosystem around which the latest innovations are going to grow and then spread from Johnstown to throughout the United States.

“Essentially, Johnstown becomes this hub of innovation, and we can’t do that without workforce development,” Ponas said, noting the 247 jobs created by Horizon Aerobotics.

“That will be just the tip of the summit,” he said.

Inside the hall, Darin Mauzy, Mission Critical Solutions’ vice president of operations, taught Chernisky how to fly an airplane using a flight simulator.

Mauzy said he loves visiting schools and teaching kids “the love of flight” using science, physics and mathematics.

Pitch, roll and yaw — the three basic principles of aircraft movement — are all mathematical equations, Mauzy said.

“But we don’t tell them that,” he said. “They don’t think they’re coming to do educational work; they think they’re coming to fly. … And long before they spend too much money learning to fly, we can get them involved in it to learn the science behind it.”

Mauzy said he’s watched several 13- to 17-year-olds go up to their mothers in disbelief and say, “Mom, I was amazing. I did that.”

“Everyone’s like ‘All young people do nowadays is sit on a video game.’ Yeah, but that shows skills and trades that can be translatable to the thing they love and then it’s not work,” Mauzy said.

The flight-training work that Nulton Aviation is doing at the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport is “pretty incredible,” Mauzy said.

“They’re teaching skilled trades that are starting out between $75,000 and $100,000 to work on airplanes, bringing that here to Contour at Altoona,” Mauzy said, noting Pennsylvania was ranked one of the lowest states in the nation for aviation less than five years ago and is now fourth in the nation for aviation and aviation trades.

Bill Miller, the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry’s vice president of external affairs, said people think aerospace aviation is a niche sector. But the numbers tell a very different story, he said.

Aerospace and aviation supports roughly 43,000 jobs in the commonwealth and generates $19.3 billion in economic output, Miller said.

“This is a major economic driver for our commonwealth, a growing one, and we see real momentum,” Miller said, adding the future of aviation is no longer theoretical.

“It’s happening now,” and organizations like Aerium are leading the way, he said.

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.