The economic impact of Arnold Engineering Development Complex in Tullahoma, Tenn., totaled $609.3 million last year, according to a new study by the Tennessee Valley Authority.
AEDC, which includes the main complex site in Franklin and Coffee counties and its remote operating locations - the Hypervelocity Tunnel 9 at White Oak in Silver Spring, Md., and the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex at Moffett Field, Calif. - employs 2,266 persons and contract workers. Although the facility is a major Air Force test and research facility, only 53 of the workers at AEDC are active-duty military.
TVA calculated the economic impact from payroll, secondary jobs created through local spending and expenditures for supplies, utilities, fuel and services and the spin-off impact of those purchases. TVA economists estimate the complex helped generate at least 1,608 secondary jobs in the local area.
AEDC operates the world's largest complex of ground test facilities with a replacement value of more than $11.6 billion.