A 96-acre aircraft production facility is set to be built adjacent to the Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport — three miles away from the village — with construction to begin in 2027. Once finished, aerospace company Electra will produce small, hybrid crafts and will employ an estimated 1,950 people. (Submitted photo)
New aircraft manufacturing facility planned north of village
- Published: August 2, 2026
On Tuesday, July 21, American aerospace company Electra announced plans to construct a new aircraft production facility to be sited at AirPark Ohio, adjacent to Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport and three miles north of Yellow Springs.
The planned 96-acre, $850 million facility will produce nine-passenger, fixed-wing, hybrid-electric aircraft — a model dubbed the EL9 Ultra Short — capable of taking off and landing in small spaces.
According to a press release from Gov. Mike DeWine, design work on the new facility will begin immediately, with construction to start next year. The first phase of development will support production of up to 400 aircraft per year, with a second phase planned to boost capacity to 800 annually.
Once completed, the Electra facility will be a site for an estimated 1,975 jobs.
“Ohio is where flight began, and the Dayton-Springfield area has become the national epicenter for advanced air mobility — the place where the next generation of aircraft is being designed, tested, and now built at scale,” wrote DeWine in the release. “Electra’s decision to bring nearly 2,000 new jobs to Springfield will be transformative for Clark County, demonstrating Ohio’s unique ability to lead America into aviation’s next era.”
Photo via Electra.aero
The release notes that Electra’s EL9 Ultra Short model aims to meet demand for “direct aviation,” an emerging genre of “point-to-point” travel between places such as parking lots, barges and sports fields. The model’s propulsion and blown-lift technology allows the aircraft to take off and land in as little as 150 feet.
According to Electra’s website, Springfield was selected from among 140 potential locations in a year-long competitive bid; it was favored in criteria that included workforce availability; infrastructure readiness; long-term expansion capacity; state and local partnerships; incentives; and proximity to aerospace, defense and advanced manufacturing.
Electra’s contracted customers include the U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy and NASA along with over 2,200 letters of intent from more than 60 commercial customers, including both airlines and helicopter operators.
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