It wasn't an accident earlier this year when the Arkansas Aerospace & Defense Alliance met for the first time in northeast Arkansas. The Arkansas Aeroplex--once Eaker Air Force Base--between Blytheville and Gosnell has a 300-foot-wide runway that runs for 11,600 feet. If the state plays its cards correctly from an economic development standpoint, it just might be the next big thing in Arkansas.

I've written in recent weeks about what I consider the most amazing business story in Arkansas right now: the transformation of Mississippi County from the leading cotton-producing county in the country to the leading steel-producing county. Business and civic leaders in this region don't want to see it stop there. They believe they can add a large aerospace and defense presence to the economic mix.

Chad Causey heads the Arkansas Aerospace & Defense Alliance. "We're laser focused on growing the aerospace and defense industry and promoting the members we have across the state," he says. "We're appreciative of the invitation to come to the Aeroplex and explore the growth potential that exists here."

Since implementation of a half-cent economic development sales tax in 2003, Mississippi County has generated $8 billion in capital investment and created 8,000 jobs. Most have been in the steel industry. Mississippi County Judge John Alan Nelson, a licensed pilot, believes the aerospace sector can work hand in hand with the steel industry to supercharge this region's economy.

"Proximity to the Mississippi River and seemingly endless acreage available for development in America's heartland have always been selling points for Blytheville," Nelson wrote in a guest column earlier this year. "That's what first drew the U.S. government to build an airstrip on 2,600 acres in Mississippi County in 1942. Blytheville was viewed as such a strategic advantage to our nation that the Air Force expanded its presence on another 2,000 acres in the 1950s.

"While the military ceased........

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