That was one happy buzz echoing out of the Triad a few weeks ago. An economic buzz — a massive new aerospace venture coming to Greensboro, on the sprawling grounds of Piedmont-Triad International Airport.
Massive isn’t an understatement. JetZero, an innovative new player breaking into commercial aviation, has agreed to locate its headquarters and factory there. It’s not a comparatively small operation, like Honda Jet, which has been building small private aircraft in Greensboro for a few years now and employs about 1,500 people, according to FOX 8 WGHP.
JetZero plans to hire as many as 14,500 workers who will churn out dozens — eventually hundreds or more — big commercial jetliners in a new “blended wing” design that’s reminiscent of some recent military aircraft designs. The planes are meant to be workhorses, carrying hundreds of passengers on trips up to 5,000 miles. The company plans to have its first demonstration jetliner flying in two years.
Pie in the sky? Not likely. Alaska Airlines and United Airlines are already investing in the $4.7 billion project, according to Reuters. So is the U.S. Air Force. This thing is real. The backers are there to challenge Boeing and Airbus for commercial aircraft supremacy. And this project — added to the Honda and Boom Supersonic (which plans to build faster-than-sound commercial aircraft in Guilford County) — could make Greensboro a world power in commercial aviation.
So, what’s all this mean for us? It means we need some perspective here. Because the Greater Fayetteville area already has the equivalent of nearly five times that workforce in just one massive development — Fort Bragg.
The post is the largest military installation (by population) in the world, home to over 48,000 total troops, over 1,600 Reserve Components, over 2,000 Temporary Duty students, over 16,000 Department of Defense civilians and contractors, and over 80,000 military family members, according to Fort Bragg Garrison Public Affairs Officer April Olsen. And the post helps support 97,000 retirees and their families.
The post puts more than $8.8 billion a year into the local economy. It is a giant economic engine, fueling not just Cumberland County but directly or indirectly, benefiting much of North Carolina.
So we have a right, around here, to pat the state economic developers on the head and tell them, “That’s nice. Now come on down if you want to see something really big.”
I’m not sure if all the officialdom up in Raleigh really appreciates what’s been here for decades. The spotlight always finds the Triangle, Triad and Charlotte a lot more easily. So does the infrastructure investment. After years of trying, we finally got the Outer Loop, and it’s making a big difference in the way the county — and counties around us — are growing and building.
But the rest of the state’s investment in us tends toward underwhelming. There is no direct superhighway link to the Triangle, unless you want to go up I-95 to I-40, a congested corridor that is the antithesis of “direct.” Or you can drive up NC-87 to US-1, braving slow traffic and numerous stoplights until you hit the Sanford bypass. Either way, it’ll take you a couple of hours. And if you need to get to Charlotte in a hurry — well, don’t ask. You can’t. And never mind high-speed rail. It’s on some state drawing boards, but given the condition of federal funding these days, drawings are about all we’ll get.
And what about the superb education our kids deserve, and employers like Fort Bragg need for a thriving workforce? We’re still stuck in a state education funding famine. The General Assembly has spent decades thumbing its nose at court findings that it is drastically underfunding public education — defying the N.C. Constitution, which mandates adequately financed public schools. In part because we lack a well-trained and educated workforce, our economic development successes tend to be things like call centers, warehouse and distribution operations, and light manufacturing. The jobs that call for advanced degrees and specialized skills go to the Triangle and, to a lesser extent, the Triad. If we had better-educated workers and a transportation network that better connected us to the rest of the state, we might get a few more of them.
But still, there’s a pretty good bottom line for us right now: Fort Bragg is a powerful economic engine and the Greater Fayetteville area is fortunate to have it. I can’t imagine life here without it.
But I can imagine life getting a lot better if state economic developers push as hard for us as they do for the Triangle and Triad. I’ll leave it to our elected leaders to figure out how to make that happen. It should be Job No. 1.
Read CityView Magazine’s “The Military Issue” July 2025 e-edition here.