REDMOND — With its 100-plus-year deep roots in agriculture, it might not be obvious that Redmond is surrounded by high-level technology in business, education and the professions. Nowhere is that truer than Stratos Aircraft on SE Franklin, whose campus comprises three buildings with a total footprint of 40,000 square feet.

Simply put, they build airplanes. Right in Redmond. From start to finish. You don’t put a six-seat jet into the sky without a huge amount of technology. Stratos builds its 716X using the identical technology as the most prized airliner in the sky — the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The only difference is scale and market with the 716 catering to the executive or elite flyer.

The level of tech know how and sophistication at Stratos is what you’d expect in Seattle or Los Angeles, legendary aircraft manufacturing centers. Precision is an understatement. The equipment to make their jet is as futuristic as the plane itself. You name it, they have it from 3D printers to 5 axis cutting tools.

They employ 18 and when they reach full scale, that number will grow to around 100 according to Carsten Sundin, President and CEO. They are supported by remote staff in Canada and India, but Sundin is proudest of the high level engineers and fabricators staff from Redmond who get the planes airborne.

BasX is HVAC

In the same league is BasX, the 10-year-old industry leader in the manufacturing of high efficiency data center cooling solutions, cleanroom settings and custom HVAC systems which employs 320 at its 140,000-square -foot complex on SW 21st Street. Just getting through the front door is a model of technology with a virtual receptionist who even takes your temperature autonomously as a COVID mitigation measure.

“Clean rooms” are those structures where extremely valuable or vulnerable operations take place such as the making of computer chips that require extreme control of temperature, dust, humidity and air pressure to avoid contamination of the product. When rooms like that need to be designed, engineered and built, one does not call Bob’s Heating & Air.

Medline in line for growth

Drive all over the back streets and business parks of Redmond and you find businesses just like those, some with impressive, large scale facilities. Take Medline on NE Hemlock for example now doubling its size from 50 to 100,000 square feet. Inside the walls are highly skilled workers and highly complex systems making life-saving medical products such as used for tissue repair and wound care.

Thirty engineers alone are part of a much larger roster of skilled craft workers whose output includes high-tech surgical devices like electrical scalpels. It takes extraordinary ability and certification to supply the hospital market. The Redmond plant is one of several in the $18 billion company’s portfolio. Picking Redmond for a production facility is testament to the caliber of worker and infrastructure found in the city.

Other, smaller technologies

A much smaller and locally owned firm, Springer Precision, on SW Deerhound typifies another of dozens of manufacturers in Redmond. It makes parts for firearms ranging from coil magazine springs to base pads to magazine extensions and much more. Guns are loaded with technology once you take them apart. Precise machining is critical in every sense of the word.

Then there’s Risse Racing Technology in its new, larger facility on SW 2nd Ct., one more illustration of where Redmond high tech is on full display. It designs and manufactures high performance mountain bike suspension components that are distributed in Latin America, Europe and New Zealand as well as in the States.

Schools playing a role

Schools in Redmond are up to the task. Both high schools offer CTE (Career and Technical Education) opportunities sorely needed to fill the ranks of unfilled jobs in the trades and manufacturing sectors. BasX, for example, expects to need another 100 workers in the near future. They are short-handed now with a dozen or more job openings.

Redmond Proficiency Academy boasts award winning STEM Robotics and electives in computer science and AP Physics along with Business and Technology CTE courses.

The Redmond Technology Education Center at Central Oregon Community College could not be better positioned to guarantee graduates rewarding careers. Their 34,000-square-foot building houses technology-centered programs that allow students to train for current and future family-wage jobs. The $12.5 million building began classes in the 2014 fall semester.

A key aspect of COCC’s vision for the facility is its adaptability for future needs projecting that 10 years from now and beyond, the Center will be able to support training in technologies that are unknown today. To provide this flexibility, the Technology Education Center was designed with modifiable spaces as well as expansion space and large exterior access doors to allow for removing old and installing new equipment.

Apart form their well-known vet tech degree program, the college offers a two-year automotive technology degree emphasizing electric and hybrid power systems, clean diesel and on-board vehicle management diagnostics prevalent in the current generation of highly technical cars and trucks. Very few car owners could even dream of repairing their own vehicle today.

The jobs produced by the many, albeit obscure, high tech enterprises in Redmond are just the kind idealized by city planners — good paying, sustainable and contributing to the city’s dynamism and attractiveness.