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Even as the Triad economy languishes, GTCC is more than tripling the number of spots it offers for students who want to get into aviation careers as that industry shows new signs of life.

The Aviation Systems division at the school got federal approval in 2009 to expand its training positions from 125 to 450 , said Ed Frye, the division chairman for Transportation System Technology at GTCC.

That means the school is now licensed to provide rigorous Federal Aviation Administration training to licensed technicians and to those who want to acquire licenses in areas such as aircraft structure work and avionics.

With more than 300 students in class on any given day, the school is still able to absorb growth, “and we’re probably three times the size we were three years ago,” Frye said.

Two things are driving growth: demand from the Triad’s aviation companies that want to train new workers or upgrade the skills of current employees, and new funding from public and private sources with an eye toward expanding the aviation industry here.

Honda Aircraft Co. , which is building a factory at PTI for its new HondaJet, already is using GTCC to train 150 people to build planes.

Meanwhile, Timco, an aircraft maintenance company nearby, just signed a deal with Northrop Grumman to help maintain the Air Force’s 59 KC-10 air-refueling tankers. The contract is reportedly worth $150 million over nine years and could add up to 100 jobs at its PTI operations. GTCC will provide training for that program.

Another 120 students are enrolled in various programs and will seek jobs when they graduate.

To win the FAA’s approval for expansion, GTCC added 10 part-time teachers to the 10 full-timers there now, added hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment and increased the number of aircraft available for students to work on.

GTCC is developing a curriculum for making specialized aircraft material for Honda and Timco at their request, Frye said, and all this cutting-edge technology rubs off on all the school’s programs.

“Lots of schools train in a vacuum,” Frye said. “If you train in a partnership with industry, you train with what they actually need in terms of employees and skills.”

The aviation school recently got a $1.45 million grant from Golden Leaf Foundation to develop a training program for high school students that could bring 35 to 40 12th-graders to the campus.

GTCC’s two aviation buildings, which also include the pilot-training operations of the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University , are overloaded with laboratories, classrooms and maintenance areas.

In addition to the current buildings on Regional Road and Radar Road, Frye and GTCC are designing a third building next to the Radar Road site.

The new building will be a traditional college building, unlike the older ones that were adapted from industrial use. Career pilot and aviation management programs will be there, along with the high school academy and any other similar programs.

Frye sees a brighter outlook for employment as well.

“There’s starting to be some turnaround in some facets of the industry,” he said, “and I’m confident that the next time we graduate a class this July things will look even better.”

Contact Richard M. Barron at 373-7371 or richard.barron@news-record.com