It was four years ago when KF Aerospace founder Barry Lapointe pitched an idea on a cocktail napkin.
That cocktail napkin vision and dream came to fruition on Tuesday when a ribbon-cutting ceremony officially opened the doors to the KF Aerospace Centre for Excellence at Kelowna International Airport.
“To think it was four years ago, Barry and I sat in the restaurant up the road here, and he pitched a concept to me of this actual building,” KF Aerospace executive director Paula Quinn recalled of that meeting.
“There is one catch he said, I want it to look like an airplane.”
“It’s incredible and, you know, I’m not sure that there’s a place like this anywhere in North America,” said Kelowna mayor Colin Basran, who was one of the dignitaries on hand at the ribbon-cutting event.
The 60,0000 square foot Centre for Excellence is Lapointe’s legacy project, which many say came together very quickly.
Lapointe, however, said it was supposed to be completed even sooner.
“It’s not as fast as I thought it was going to be,” Lapointe said. “I was hoping to have this done for our 50th anniversary.
“We’ve been here now for 52 years. I was hoping to get it done two years ago, but then COVID hit.”
The mass-timber building, which resembles an airplane from the sky, features two hangars with a rare aircraft collection, including a mosquito warplane — one of only a handful in the world.
The Centre for Excellence also has an interactive exhibition detailing the Okanagan’s rich aviation history, as well as outlining the careers the industry offers.
The top portion of the building features an airfield viewing gallery and conference facilities for events.
“The opportunity to hold events, to learn about the aviation history here in the Okanagan, and to have people be inspired to want to grow the industry even further … the spin-offs, as a result of the Center for Excellence, are immense,” Basran told Global News.
For Lapointe, attracting young people to the aviation industry played a big role in getting the Centre for Excellence project off the ground.
“We’re losing them to high-tech companies, to computer companies,” Lapointe said. “Flying and aviation gets into your blood, it just really does.
“It’s a passion that I want to instill in young people today and for them to know that there’s a great future for it and, and a great opportunity for it.”
KF Aerospace has a long history at the airport, spanning more than five decades.
“When you look at the growth of the airport, and the growth of KF Aerospace, they are very, very similar,” said Sam Samaddar, director of Kelowna International Airport.
“Their success has been our success. Our success has been their success.”
Samaddar said KF Aerospace is a company that’s the envy of many other airports in Canada.
“Every airport in Canada would want to have a KF at their airport,” Samaddar told Global news. “And believe me, there have been many airports that have tried to steal away KF from from the economy.”
The company started as an aircraft repair business, but has grown and expanded over the years to include cargo services, engineering maintenance and air force pilot training, just to name a few of the added services.
The company now employs nearly 1,000 people.
The new KF Aerospace Centre for Excellence, located at 5800 Lapointe Dr., is a non-profit organization established to promote the aviation industry, locally and nationally.
Its doors will open to the public on Wednesday, Aug. 31, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
A minimum donation of $10 per family or $5 per person is required.
Comments