The future of flying: The birthplace of aviation reaches new heights as international airports and aerospace manufacturing extend North Carolina's global reach.

• Author: Blake, Kathy
• Position: First in Flight: SPONSORED SECTION

Aviators Orville and Wilbur Wright made their historic flight in December 1903, and the world started shrinking. It marked the end of weeks-long trips across the country and months-long crossings of the Atlantic Ocean. Today, North Carolina's international airports are moving people and goods across the globe. They give fuel to a thriving aerospace manufacturing industry producing everything from the next generation of components to the enormous panels on the torsos of the world's most popular planes. The state's aviation industry makes an annual economic impact of more than $40 billion, according to the N.C. Department of Transportation. Read more about this sector of the state's soaring economy inside these pages.

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Soaring to success

The world is as close as an airline ticket thanks to nearly 40 direct international flights from Charlotte Douglas and Raleigh-Durham airports combined. But there's more to North Carolina's two largest international airports than instant access to the globe. In Charlotte and the Triangle, airport property means jobs, economic growth and connections to foreign interests in trade, travel and business.

"Our economic impact is $8.5 billion every year," says Kristie Van Auken, RDU's vice president of communications and community affairs. "We contribute 20,000 jobs. This is a significant economic driver. Being an international gateway is huge. There are only two in the state, and the value of that cannot be overstated."

Charlotte Douglas offers flights to 34 international destinations and logged 544,000 takeoffs and landings in 2015 alone. It's the second-busiest hub behind Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport for American Airlines, the nation's largest airline. Rapid growth and demand drives Destination CLT, a 10-year, $2.5 billion expansion project that will bring a 12,000-foot runway able to accommodate nonstop flights to Asia and 40-plus new gates by 2026. Charlotte Douglas is also one of the city's largest landowners, with 6,000 acres bordered by Interstates 85 and 485, Shopton Road and Billy Graham Parkway, some of which is slated for development.

RDU has an eye to the future with Vision 2040, a plan that calls for more than $2.7 billion in improvements, including a new runway for international flights. The 10,000-foot runway, which could be extended to 11,500 feet, would make possible a dream for RDU: a direct flight to China, which expects to replace the U.S. as the world's busiest aviation market in the next two decades. A symposium to lay the groundwork for recruiting flight service to China is set for this month. An influx of Chinese tourists to North Carolina could translate into big dollars: Visit North Carolina estimates that Chinese and Hong Kong tourists spend an average of $736 per person, compared with...