Thrush Aircraft making planes, adding jobs - WALB.com, Albany News, Weather, Sports

Thrush Aircraft making planes, adding jobs

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October 19, 2004

Albany- James Kendrick is building a plane wing from the inside out, starting with the ribs.

"It allows me to work on things I've never worked on before and I enjoy it," Kendrick said.

It's a good thing, because the Thrush Aircraft plant is a busy place, from assembling the basket that holds the engine to welding together the fuselage.

"We are now doing three airplanes a month. And we hope to go to one a week by June," said co-owner Larry Bays.

They've already built 18 planes and come closer to more every day, making sure each piece is inspected along the way.

All the hours of work employees put in here bring them a step closer to a finished product which is planes that are used all over this country and in 80 other countries around the world.

The planes are traditionally used as agricultural spray planes. This one is going to Costa Rica to spray bananas, but they're also purchased to fight fires and carry fuel.

"They are like big pick-up trucks," Bays said. "So just about anything you can put in a pick-up truck, you can put in one of these."

So that means plenty of work for the ones who are piecing together each part of every wing.

"I mean, the whole plane rides on the wing, so it's a very critical job," Kendrick said.

A critical job he wants to know is done right, so it will fly right.

posted at 4:48 p.m. by brannon.stewart@walb.com