Yulista opens hangar at Meridianville airport

Yulista Management Services Inc. marked the opening Friday of a new 14,000-square-foot aviation hangar facility at the Madison County Executive Airport in Meridianville.

The hangar will support Yulista's joint venture work with Science and Engineering Services Inc. The Joint Venture Yulista and SES, called JVYS, provides engineering and technical support for the Prototype Integration Facility at Redstone Arsenal.

JVYS specializes in modifications or improvements to military aircraft, and in the last four years, the PIF/JVYS team has become a major player in modifying Army aircraft, including Apache, Black Hawk and cargo helicopters.

"Whenever soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan need something to support weapons systems, and need it fast, we're the organization that provides it," said Darrell Harrison, the general manager of JVYS. "We were doing (the aircraft work) at the PIF, but we had outgrown the space on the Arsenal and now we're expanding."

The new facility includes a 10,000-square-foot hangar and office space.

"This will represent about 15 new jobs, but hopefully we'll grow to more than one hangar," he said.

Yulista Management Services is a subsidiary of Anchorage, Alaska-based Calista Corp. Calista is the second largest of the 13 regional corporations formed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971.

Yulista has 235 employees in Huntsville, and JVYS employs 350 people.

The JVYS aviation modification team includes licensed aircraft sheet metal specialists, technicians, electricians and mechanics.