Blimp-maker Worldwide Aeros Corp. opens facility in Montebello Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Norwalk), left, tours Worldwide Aeros Corp.'s new engineering facility in Montebello. Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times Worldwide Aeros Corp., the Montebello-based developer and maker of blimps used for surveillance, advertising and transport, opened a 45,000-square-foot engineering facility to house work on a mammoth 66-ton airship. The company is expanding in part to build the blimp-like aircraft, which would travel about 120 mph and could take off and land vertically. The idea is that the airship will ferry multi-ton cargo loads back and forth for the military. The new facility, dubbed Center of Innovation, was opened Tuesday in a ceremony attended by state politicians. It's located in Montebello, adjacent to Aeros" headquarters. Rep. Grace F. Napolitano (D-Norwalk), who helped secure $15.5 million in federal funding for the massive airship, was in attendance and took a tour of the building. "Stronger U.S. manufacturing is a critical part of our economic recovery," Napolitano said in a statement. I am encouraged to see this aerospace manufacturer expand and grow. Aeros currently has 90 employees and said it is looking to hire more engineers and technicians with the new facility. "Our legacy is to create flying machines that no one else dreamed about," said Igor Pasternak, Aeros president and chief executive, in a statement. Pasternak, 47, started the company in 1987 in the Ukraine. He immigrated to U.S. in 1993 and continued to build the business in Southern California.