Aerospace Industry Takes Flight
in Asheville, NC
Pratt & Whitney launches Asheville Operations with $650M Investment
Pratt & Whitney is a world leader in the design, manufacture and service of aircraft and helicopter engines, and auxiliary power units. Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an aerospace and defense company that provides advanced systems and services for commercial, military and government customers worldwide. In October of 2020, Pratt & Whitney, a division of Raytheon Technologies Corp. (NYSE: RTX) announced plans to invest approximately $650 million through 2027 in a new Buncombe County manufacturing facility. The milestone investment in new building, technology, machinery and equipment is intended to create 800 new positions through 2027 including career opportunities in engineering, technology, production and management. Company plans call for the development of a new 1 million square foot advanced manufacturing facility that will be situated on an approximately 100-acre tract overlooking Interstate 26 south of the French Broad River.
Skilled, Creative, Diverse
There’s a long-standing tradition in Buncombe County of creating products and making them work effectively. A legacy of self-sufficiency in the region embraces doing it right the first time while making superior products that stand the test of time. This creative, quality-driven culture is evident in Asheville’s manufacturing community today, where well over 600 companies manufacture products in the four-county Asheville Metropolitan Statistical Area. The diversity of aviation and aerospace products is impressive including state-of-the-art Ceramic Matrix Composites, precision metal tooling and engine components as well as avionics systems for guidance and navigation.
Newly Released Aerospace Sites
- 5 – 45 Acre Parcels Available
- Parcels offer Taxiway Access
- Airport Will Subdivide
- 8,001′ x 150′ Runway
- Dedicated Public Safety Dept.
- US 1-26 Adjacent – Ideal Visibility
- $90M Airfield Expansion Completed 2021
- $420M Terminal & Tower Expansion Underway
fact: 30% Growth in Aerospace Products and Parts Manufacturing industry in the Asheville Metro over the past 5 years.
Precision Metalwork and Advanced Materials
Metals machining and advanced materials companies have a long history of success in Asheville due to a legacy of precision machining and metals fabrication in the Western North Carolina as well as forward looking educational investments such as the Composites Training Center of Excellence at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College.
GE Aviation Takes Flight in Asheville
GE Aviation, operating unit of GE, is a world-leading provider of jet and turboprop engines, components and integrated systems for aircraft. With a workforce soon to exceed 550 in Asheville, North Carolina, GE Aviation currently produces precision machined rotating and non-rotating components for jet engines. In announcements of June 2013 and March 2018, the company announced transformational investments in the State of North Carolina, totaling over $230,000,000 in its Asheville facility that will become a regional center of manufacturing excellence for Ceramic Matrix Composites (CMC), and the first ever to mass produce and machine the advanced material. CMC development is an enabling technology in several of GE’s private and government-funded engine programs, contributing to an estimated $150B in industrial backlog for GE engines worldwide.
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