Special Report: Singapore Aerospace
Pratt & Whitney strengthens Singapore hub
Global engine maker adds manufacturing to its Singapore business.
February 1st 2016
Pratt & Whitney – and Singapore - will celebrate the opening of the American company’s manufacturing facility in Southeast Asia this month, consolidating the city’s position as the region’s major aerospace hub. Read More »
It’s hard to imagine anyone other than an industry enthusiast describing a jet engine component as sexy. But that was the description lavished on a fan blade by Kevin J. Kirkpatrick, director, aftermarket operations, Singapore & Taiwan for Pratt & Whitney and managing director of its main engine overhaul business in Singapore, Eagle Services Asia (ESA) when he spoke to Orient Aviation.
Kirkpatrick said it is “just a sexy product. I’ve seen blades in other places, but the technology behind this, the weight of it, the way it functions in the engine, it is just unbelievably cool technology”, he said.
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| Pratt & Whitney’s Kevin J. Kirkpatrick: Singapore is a very desirable place for us as we expand our footprint in Asia |
“I wish we could show it around the world, but obviously there’s a lot of technology in it that we don’t want to show to everyone. It is a really, really cool product.”
The “sexy” fan blade will be produced at Pratt & Whitney’s new 180,000 square foot facility in Singapore, which will be opened in this month in the same week as the Singapore Air Show. Bordering its existing flagship MRO base at Seletar, initially it will manufacture fan blades and then expand to the production of high pressure turbine disks for the company’s new generation, fuel efficient PurePower® Geared Turbofan™ engines (GTF).
“That facility was built intentionally to support the growth,” said Kirkpatrick. “It’s our first manufacturing facility in Singapore. Most of our other facilities have been MRO. It will focus on the fan blade, which is a very advanced part of the geared turbofan. It’s a hybrid metallic blade. It is only the second facility in the world that will manufacture it.”
PurePower Engines are Pratt & Whitney’s next generation of engines, which the company says will produce double digit improvements in fuel consumption as well as significant reductions in noise output, environmental emissions and operating costs. To date, PurePower Engines have been made up of two engine families: the PW800 engine family by Pratt & Whitney Canada, which will power the next generation of large business jets, and the PW1000G, or geared turbofan (GTF) engine family.
Both engine families have the PurePower engine core. The high performance core built for the demands of high-cycle, short-haul operation already is proving a success for the U.S. engine maker. The PW1000G engine has been selected as the exclusive engine for the Bombardier CSeries, the Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ), Embraer’s second generation E-Jets and as an option on the Airbus A320neo.
“We have had immense success in the marketplace. As this region is very critical to us, I am sure Singapore will play a significant role for Pratt & Whitney in that future,” said Kirkpatrick.
Singapore is the company’s most comprehensive, single location aftermarket outside the U.S and is on extremely important base for the manufacturer. “We like our position here. We like the talent that is available to us. We appreciate the infrastructure that Singapore provides: the educational systems, the Economic Development Board (EDB) support and the stable legal system,” said Kirkpatrick.
“At many levels, Singapore aligns with United Technologies’ (Pratt & Whitney is a division of United Technologies) goals of a country with which to partner. We look at this as a very significant hub for us and a very desirable place for us to expand our footprint in Asia.”
Pratt & Whitney has more than 2,000 employees in Singapore in several businesses, including engine repair units, component supply and the complete suite of MRO services. If UTC’s businesses are included in the conglomerate’s presence in the city, the head count rises above 5,000. “In aerospace, I would argue we are the biggest multi-national player in Singapore,” he said.
The main engine business is Eagle Services Asia, or ESA. “Pratt has had a long presence - more than 30 years - in Singapore. Originally, the engine centre was part of Singapore Airlines (SIA) and had been built to overhaul the airline’s fleet. Pratt became involved in the company around 1999. Since then, we have been overhauling engines for customers outside the SIA fleet. SIA is now less than 2% of our overall volume,” Kirkpatrick said.
“The facility focuses on the PW4000 engine and its variants. Additionally, we have expanded our capability to the GE 90 (General Electric) engine. We have had that capability for some time, but only recently decided to increase this business in partnership with GE.
“This is not a competitive shop to GE. GE is our customer and we are overhauling these engines on their behalf. We also will be overhauling various modules on the Engine Alliance 7000 ( a Pratt & Whitney and GE joint venture) as well as the tear down, build up and test of the engine. We are gearing up for this and will start to manufacture parts of that in Singapore from this year.”
Kirkpatrick said expansion is important but “our primary concern is aligning with our customers and making sure their fleets are very healthy and continue to fly for a very long time”.
“That said, last year we increased PW4000 business by about five per cent in Singapore. The PW4000’s overall fleet generally shrinks by about six per cent a year. In that declining market we have increased our market share. I think that comes back to customers looking to the strength of the OEM to provide very broad solutions, whether it’s speed or cost to their operations.”
“Would Pratt & Whitney expand its manufacturing capability in Singapore, as Rolls-Royce has, and build engines in the city,” asked Orient Aviation. “We will consider opportunities. We have developed a very close relationship with EDB, Singapore’s economic development arm. I won’t say we will and I won’t say we won’t. We are always considering where we want to have these operations.”
Kirkpatrick said the company “sees a pretty good 2016. Our engines are flying well. The volumes we see of PW4000 engines are consistent with the volumes we saw last year and we grew market share. That’s the challenge. I don’t see any reason why that wouldn’t continue in 2016”, he said.
