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The engine of Poland's aviation industry
One of the world's largest airplane engine manufacturers, Pratt and Whitney (PW), is building on its presence in the Polish market with two new major investments.
Considered the largest foreign investor in Polish aviation, PW has been in Poland for 29 years, and currently employs 6,000 people here. Evidently, its commitments are proving a success.
The first announcement was that PW plans to invest about $50 (zł.157) million in its Polish production facilities during the course of 2005. Part of the offset deal with Lockheed Martin, the injection comes in return for Poland's purchase of 48 F-16 fighters. The company builds, among others, the engines for Lockheed's F-16s.
"If we add up all our investments in Rzeszów, Kalisz and the Warsaw Aircraft Works No. Four, they will reach almost $50 (zł.157) million next year," said Robert J. Robinson, vice president for international purchase at PW.
The investments will be used to expand production, especially at PW's Rzeszów plant, where the company will be assembling F100 engines to be used in F-16 fighter planes for the Polish army. The company also hopes to use the investments to begin the manufacture of extremely modern aircraft engine turbine parts.
At the same time, PW has announced that it will invest $7.3 (zł.23) million over the next decade in the Center for Materials and Structure Research, which was opened at Warsaw's Institute of Aviation last Monday. The center will test materials that are used in aircraft engines.
"We are pleased to have the Institute of Aviation join PW's worldwide network of engineering research and development facilities, and look forward to building on our long-term collaboration with Poland's engineering and scientific communities," said Paul Adams, vice president of engineering at PW.
Source: http://www.wbj.pl |
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