Honeywell Plans 600-Worker Plant

Honeywell Aerospace will build a $500 million, 300,000-square-foot manufacturing plant on its Tempe campus, eventually employing about 600 people after it opens in late 2028.

CEO Jim Currier credited the company’s recent spinoff from Honeywell and accelerating commercial and defense demand for enabling the investment. The plant’s construction will support more than 1,000 local jobs.

The plant will use robotics, automated inspection, and virtual modeling, bringing complex machining in-house to address what the company says are supply constraints.

Tempe Mayor Corey Woods called it the largest aerospace investment ever in the city. During the pandemic, Honeywell announced 500 Phoenix jobs to make N95 masks.

School Letter Grades Released

The State Board of Education released 2025-26 A-F letter grades for public schools and districts this week, the final batch issued under the state’s current grading system.

Statewide, 534 K-8 schools and 128 high schools earned an A, while eight K-8 schools and two high schools received an F. Schools have until Nov. 16 to appeal. You can find scores here.

Starting this school year, schools face higher proficiency and growth targets, which the state Department of Education estimated could cause 50 high schools to lose their A grades.

In Southern Arizona, the Vail district counted 14 A-rated K-8 schools, and Tucson Unified had 11.

Space Tourism Plane Leaves Factory

Virgin Galactic unveiled its first Delta-class spaceplane, Spaceship Apeiron, at its Mesa factory, then flew it beneath its carrier aircraft to Spaceport America in New Mexico.

The company plans to resume paid space tourism flights in the second quarter of 2027. The spaceplane’s carrier aircraft, Eve, rehearsed the route last year with its first flight into Mesa.

With Virgin Galactic’s rivals pulling back to focus on other work, U.S. space tourism has gone about 10 months without a flight.

Virgin Galactic completed its spaceship factory at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport in 2024, and assembly of a second ship is underway.

A Note from Cole, CEO of The Flyover

Dear Reader,

Every year, auditors count how many copies America’s biggest newspapers actually put in people’s hands. The new numbers are brutal.

Of the 25 largest papers in the country, 24 shrank last year. Average decline: 12.5%. Nearly a quarter-million daily papers, gone in a single year. The Denver Post now prints about 24,000 copies a day. The Arizona Republic, 33,000. The Houston Chronicle, 35,000. The Dallas Morning News, under 40,000. These are metros of millions. And the steepest collapse in the country belonged to The Washington Post: down 21% in a single year to fewer than 88,000 print copies.

The industry will tell you it’s the internet. It’s a convenient story, because it means none of this is their fault.

Here’s the story they won’t tell: Americans didn’t stop caring about the news. They stopped trusting the people delivering it. Somewhere along the way, the papers stopped reporting what happened and started campaigning for what they wanted to happen—and their readers noticed. Trust in the media now sits at the lowest level ever recorded.

So no, that’s not an audience drifting away. That’s a jury coming back with a verdict.

And here’s the part the industry really doesn’t want to talk about: those readers didn’t give up on news. They went looking for someone who would just tell them the truth. Millions of them found their way to The Flyover publications—morning news publications built on one simple ideal:

We call things what they are.

We keep the spin out and trust you with the facts.

And The Flyover stays free.

It turns out that when you just give people the facts and trust them to think for themselves, people respond.

So today I’m asking: Will you help us continue? If news that plays it straight is something you want to see thrive, will you stand behind us?

Chip in and support the news that gives it to you straight—and free, every morning.

Will you make a generous donation to support The Flyover?

While the biased legacy media is failing, will you join our movement to keep the bias out of the news, free to your inbox every morning?

I’d be grateful if you did.

Give $10
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Our promise: we answer to you. Help us keep it.

– Cole
CEO, The Flyover

Flying together with our sponsor

➤ Statewide: Arizona’s first joint local, state, and federal campaign targeting cartel trafficking seized more than 8,900 pounds of drugs and 127 weapons and made over 2,900 arrests from December through September, authorities said. (More)

➤ Bellemont: Forecasters confirmed a third tornado from last week’s storms hit near the unincorporated community outside of Flagstaff. The EF1 carved a roughly 2-mile path through ponderosa pines with 110 mph winds. (More)

➤ Tucson: The state Supreme Court ruled that a woman who unsuccessfully sued her neighbors over a noisy air conditioner must pay their legal fees under the subdivision’s covenants. (More)

➤ Cochise County: A ranch dog became Arizona’s first confirmed New World screwworm case in decades. Officials expect the dog to survive. (More)

➤ Phoenix: Police said license plate reader cameras helped them arrest a 53-year-old man, one of two drivers who left the scene after fatally striking a 64-year-old pedestrian on Oct. 23. (More)

➤ Pima County: A pickup towing a camper drove south in the northbound lanes of Interstate 19 on Thursday morning, causing multiple crashes. No injuries were reported. (More)

➤ Camp Verde: The town council hired Joshua Jones as town manager following a background check into his firing from a city administrator position in Venus, Texas. (More)

Enjoy reading The Arizona Flyover? Click here to share with your friends and family.

➤ Chris Garagiola will move from radio to become the Arizona Diamondbacks’ television play-by-play voice next season. He follows in the footsteps of his grandfather, Hall of Fame broadcaster Joe Garagiola Sr., who spent 15 seasons on Diamondbacks broadcasts. (More)

➤ Meanwhile, Nogales native Demetrio Crisantes could become the first Arizona-born player drafted by the Diamondbacks out of high school to reach the majors, possibly next year. (More)

➤ Bowling Green, Missouri, launched a nationwide campaign to erect a statue of hometown hero Cotton Fitzsimmons, who served three tenures as Phoenix Suns head coach. (More)

➤ Yesterday’s Results: NFL | NCAAF | WNBA | NHL | NBA | Soccer | Golf

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➤ Oro Valley launched Shop Oro Valley to keep spending local after a study found 13.4 million shopping and dining trips went outside town, worth about $1.18 billion. (More)

➤ Phoenix’s hosting of the NCAA women’s basketball Final Four tournament in April delivered a $71.5 million economic impact on the state, researchers said. Out-of-state visitors stayed about four nights and spent $221 per person per day, generating about $4 million in taxes, they said. (More)

➤ Arizona State University, Purdue, and the University of Tennessee-Knoxville will team to offer nuclear engineering micro-certifications, aiming to fill a growing workforce gap. (More)

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Still Paying the Same Car Insurance Rate?

The average U.S. driver now pays about $194 a month for car insurance. If you’ve been with the same insurer for years, it may be worth checking whether you’re still getting a competitive rate.

Shopping around can uncover lower-priced options, and comparing quotes only takes a few minutes.

Money’s car insurance comparison tool can help you see rates from providers in your area and find out whether switching could put more money back in your pocket.

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➤ A flood watch covers much of south and central Arizona today. A stronger storm system is forecast for Sunday. (More)

➤ A group of Phoenix bank employees pulled street vendor Hilario Cruz Cruz and his food cart inside during last week’s hailstorm, a video of which topped 1 million social media views. Cruz says his business is now booming. (More)

➤ Nearly 4,000 people, including the city’s first mayor, are buried at Pioneer and Military Memorial Park in downtown Phoenix, a rocky site that resembles a vacant lot. (More)

Flying together with our sponsor

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The following stories are featured exclusively on The Flyover Podcast—a daily show that gives you the most important headlines in under 15 minutes. 

➤ Protesters clashed with riot police in Madrid, demanding the prime minister’s resignation after Wednesday’s train crash killed nearly seventy people. (Hear Details)

➤ Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang reportedly grew close to a suspected Chinese spy whom U.S. intelligence spent a year tracking. (Hear Story)

➤ A popular WNBA star said the FBI is monitoring roughly 20 people tied to stalking and threats against her. (Listen Now)

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Honeywell Aerospace’s Phoenix roots trace back to which company that opened a plant at Sky Harbor Airport during World War II?

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