Pratt & Whitney Invests for the Future

Pratt & Whitney is reaping the benefits of its recent major investments, according to Rick Deurloo, president of its commercial engines division. Speaking to journalists at a pre-Farnborough visit to the company’s main production facility in Middletown, Connecticut, he noted that in the first half of the year, the company invested more than $400 million in the further development of both its production capacity and MRO capabilities, part of a larger billion-dollar investment that has seen the engine maker increase its production by 50% above pre-pandemic levels. That ramp-up in production is certainly warranted.

“Right now, we have 15,000 commercial engines out there generating flight revenue for us,” said Deurloo, adding that its geared turbofans equip more than 2,800 aircraft and that it has an 8,000-engine backlog. Following EASA certification earlier this year, the RTX subsidiary started deliveries of its GTF Advantage engine to Airbus, with service entry expected by the end of the fourth quarter.

“If you think about where it’s going to be playing on the A320neo family, that order book is sold out right now until 2030 and beyond,” explained Deurloo. “At one time when we watched this program, we thought it was going to be a seven-, eight-year run. Now we know it’s going to be an airplane that’s going to be delivering for some time.”

At Pratt & Whitney’s facility in Rzeszów, Poland, more than a quarter of that recent $400 million went to expanding production capacity, adding advanced capabilities, and meeting growing global demand for its commercial and military engines. The company will construct a new facility that will house specialized capabilities for processing isothermally forged parts, including heat treatment, sonic machining, and inspection operations.

The company also added a $1 billion, one-million-sq-ft turbine airfoil facility, including a $235 million advanced casting foundry, in Asheville, North Carolina, which has enabled it to begin consolidating and streamlining production of turbine blades under one roof rather than having to ship them around to several different locations at various steps in the process. At RTX’s wholly owned subsidiary HMI, in Clayville, New York, the principal supplier of superalloy powder and billet to Pratt & Whitney, a third production tower will come online toward the end of the year and increase its output of raw materials to the engine maker by 50%.

Additionally, P&W is investing $200 million to build a seventh isothermal forging press at its Columbus, Georgia facility. Slated for completion by 2028, the expansion is expected to boost output of critical jet engine parts by 30%.

All this investment comes not just to support the current aircraft designs, but to position P&W to power future airframes as well. “Some of the biggest pacers to next-gen single-aisle timing is the industrial footprint needed,” Deurloo said. “All this investment we’re making today gives the foundation of the framework of an industrial footprint that will help support next-gen single-aisle as well.”

Taking advantage of that investment is the company’s military engine side. “I love that we are part of the business that has both commercial and military, because as we invest in the company and the growth that’s going on on both sides, it helps each other; it lifts the capacity across the board,” said Jill Albertelli, president of P&W’s military engine division. “Very often we share technologies across the business, from military to commercial, so I do get the advantage of those many millions of flight hours that [the commercial engine business] has, and vice versa. It’s critical to our business.”

P&W provides powerplants for the fifth-generation F-22 and F-35 fighters, and the under-development B-21 Raider. “We are the only provider of fifth-generation power that’s with our F135 and also our F119,” Albertelli said, adding that the F119—equipped on the F-22 Raptor—recently surpassed a million flight hours. “This is the first fifth-generation engine and jet application that existed. It definitely is the base off of which we moved into the F135 on the F-35 platform, and it continues to fly very critical missions today.” As well, the company’s engines equip the legacy F-15 and F-16, the C-17 transport, and the KC-46 tanker.

For the F135 engine, which powers all three variants of the F-35 and is capable of producing more than 43,000 pounds of thrust with the afterburner engaged, P&W has delivered more than 1,500 units thus far, according to Albertelli. “I would say this year we’re up about 20% from a contractual standpoint for construction of new engines.” In March, P&W was awarded a $3.8 billion contract modification for lots 18-19 of the powerplant, bringing the total value of the F135 lots 18-19 contract to $6.6 billion.

Infrastructure Improvements, Fuel Production Increases

Built in the 1970s and described as the crown jewel of the company’s main production plant in Middletown, Connecticut, the Product Delivery Center is the last stop for engine testing before the units are shipped to customers. In the ensuing half-century, the facility has been continually renovated and refurbished to the point that Edward Sluis, the location’s v-p and general manager, explained during a pre-Farnborough Air Show tour, “There’s not much left other than concrete from the 1970s.”

Part of its latest $30 million upgrade to the eight-test-cell facility was the reconstruction of cells one and two, which are dedicated to military engines such as the F135. With a quenching system using water pumped from the adjacent Connecticut River to cool engine exhaust when run on full afterburner, the test cell ejectors—the tunnels leading to the “hush houses”—were paneled in stainless steel to prevent corrosion over an 18-month span, as were the interiors of the hush houses themselves, which serve to muffle the exhaust and release steam. Having both those test cells in operation has contributed to the up-tempo in production. “The importance of that is it’s leveled up our capacity to be able to test 135 engines, which is important every single day,” said Albertelli.

She added that her division isn’t beyond adapting existing Pratt & Whitney technology and even products from other divisions to suit new military applications, such as in the case of powering collaborative combat aircraft. “That’s one of the hot topics,” she said. “Always on the defense side, we have been able to test small engines on remote applications, so that’s where we would pull a business jet engine from Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC)—say, the 500 series type of engine.”

Albertelli noted that P&WC’s off-the-shelf engines can offer an up to 20% increase in their qualified thrust capability for uncrewed applications, enabling them to deliver increased performance for those applications.