General Electric Aviation’s Limestone County facility is two years away from being operational, but a company official on Thursday said expansion is very likely.

Jon Lyford, Strategy & Advanced Technology Leader for GE Aviation, said the company made a commitment to hire 300 employees for its silicon carbide manufacturing facility, but added the company could double that number “as capacity and need grows.” Lyford made those comments as the keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the Limestone County Economic Development Association at Athens State University.

Lyford explained the Huntsville operation will be a crucial part of GE Aviation’s supply chain. Components manufactured in Huntsville will be used on aircraft engines being assembled in Asheville, North Carolina.

A groundbreaking on GE Aviation’s Limestone County facility is set for June. The company plans to build two adjacent factories on Greenbrier Road, just south of Interstate 565 in Huntsville-annexed Limestone County. A third building will also be constructed for administrative purposes.

One plant will produce silicon carbide (SiC) ceramic fiber and represents the first such operation in the United States. The only other large-scale SiC ceramic fiber factory is operated by NGS Advanced Fibers in Japan, which is a joint company of Nippon Carbon, GE and Safran of France.

The adjacent GE factory in Alabama will use the SiC ceramic fiber to produce the unidirectional ceramic matrix composite, or CMC, tape necessary to fabricate CMC components.

Lyford said the company is reserving space for the possibility of constructing a fourth 200,000-square-foot building to accommodate potential growth and more employees. He anticipated a mid-2018 startup for the company’s Huntsville operation.

How will the products be used?

Carbon fiber composite material is lighter and more durable and can help improve the efficiency and performance of aircraft engines. One carbon fiber is one-fifth the diameter of a strand of human hair.

The CMC materials will enable aircraft engines to run faster and hotter, which improves fuel efficiency and environmental friendliness.

GE’s new engines are also more powerful. Lyford said the Mercury-Redstone rocket that launched Alan Shepard to a suborbital flight into space in 1961 had a thrust of 78,000 pounds. GE’s 9X engine has a thrust of 102,000 pounds.

“It’s a story of getting more for less,” Lyford said. “The ceramic material is allowing us to move engines to the next efficiency level.”

He explained that a 1 percent reduction in fuel consumption saves $1 million per year for an air carrier. When talking about the next generation of engines being produced by GE Aviation, he said that fuel savings range is 1 to 2 percent.

To give an example of how much fuel an airplane burns, he related a story about a trip he took from New York to Tokyo in the mid-1980s. He was talking to the pilots prior to takeoff and one of the pilots asked Lyford if he knew how much fuel would be used on the flight.

“He told me they burn through enough fuel to heat the average home for 102 years on an average flight,” Lyford said. “Today, through advancements, it’s probably closer to 70 years. There have been significant strides to transport people and cargo around the world.”

Why Limestone County

Lyford said Limestone County was one of nine potential states being considered for a new facility. He explained officials took an engineering approach to narrowing down each state based on formulas and carefully weighed criteria.

“To be fair, there were a lot of good sites, but Huntsville did shine,” he said.

The dynamics that worked in Limestone County’s favor included available infrastructure and even the weather. Lyford said the humidity is very similar to the company’s ceramic matrix composite manufacturing facility in Newark, Delaware.

Another important factor, Lyford explained, was the Tennessee Valley’s workforce and educational institutions. He said company official examined schools, existing programs and even test scores.

“(The people) are highly educated, which speaks strongly of the workforce,” he said. “The academic infrastructure is superior.”

Since the company’s announcement, GE has been working with officials at Calhoun Community College and Alabama Industrial Development Training on curricula and programs to train its future workers. Lyford predicted Athens State University would likely become part of that educational pipeline, too.

Lyford said the most important deciding factor, however, was incentives offered to the company at the local and state levels.

“Pro-business environments are very important,” he said. “The U.S. needs to stay ahead and stay competitive in this area. The local teams have been doing a good job recruiting and won our hearts to bring us here.”

Lyford, who currently resides in New Hampshire, is in the process of buying a house here.

“I’ll be an Athens resident,” he said. “My wife and I are excited. We’re not sure how the dogs will take it, but they’re dogs.”