City panel to mull longtime deal with Carter Aviation

The Wichita Falls Economic Development Corporation will consider its years-long relationship with Carter Aviation when it meets on Thursday.

The agenda item is “Discussion and possible action related to Carter Aviation Technologies, LLC, Carter Air Vehicles, LLC, Carter Aerospace Development, LLC, and Jay W. Carter, Jr.”

Carter’s companies began getting incentive deals from the city’s EDC board in 2009. Renegotiations and extensions over the years ultimately provided Carter a no-interest $3.26 million dollar loan to be paid off in $656,000 annual installments until June 2026.

The incentives were for land, buildings and equipment to go towards the creation of primary jobs.

When he spoke to the board in October 2022, Jay W. Carter Jr. had not repaid the city any of the loan.

The city had not replied to a TRN inquiry about Carter’s current payment status by deadline time on Friday. The agenda does not provide details on the nature of the discussions or possible actions at the meeting.

Carter’s company had proposed to develop a combination helicopter/fixed-wing aircraft, which Carter said was a prototype hybrid electric and gas aircraft that had the capability to take off from downtown Los Angeles and fly 500 mph nonstop to downtown New York City.

Carter said at the time the company was engaged in deals with other major aviation companies and a dozen major banks but blamed his inability to pay the debt on others in the aerospace industry and military brass.

“You don’t know the dirty tricks that have been played against us,” Carter said.

He also said banks were in charge of the company.

“I’m not really in charge anymore,” he said.

At the time Carter signed the deal at an enthusiastic gathering of city and Chamber of Commerce officials in 2009, he predicted the company could bring as many as 300 jobs to Wichita Falls.

“We don’t want to have 300 aircraft built anywhere but Wichita Falls, Texas,” the Chamber of Commerce president at the time said.

In his October talk to the EDC board, Carter said his aircraft would be built in Canada, not Wichita Falls.

As part of the Carter deal the EDC board held as collateral 20 percent ownership in the company's patents.

The EDC board's money for providing business incentives comes from a portion of the sales tax paid in Wichita Falls. The City Council has final say on any deals.

This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: City panel to mull longtime deal with Carter Aviation