> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://pvweekly.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Pratt & Whitney’s $285 million Asheville expansion reached deeper into the engine supply chain - URL: https://pvweekly.com/pratt-whitney-asheville-airfoil-foundry-expansion/ - Published: 2026-10-27T19:29:57.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-27T19:29:57.000Z - Description: 2025 archive · The January 2025 plan paired more turbine-airfoil capacity with a foundry investment whose workforce and production schedule extended well beyond the announcement. - Author: PV Weekly Editorial - Tags: Technology & Defense, Archive 2025, #ledger-format, #archive-backfill-20261027 **2025 archive** · January 28, 2025Reporting prepared October 22, 2026\. This retrospective describes events and expectations from the period covered.[Browse the archive](https://pvweekly.com/archive/) A turbine airfoil's shape is only part of what allows it to survive inside a jet engine. Its cooling passages, surface treatment and manufacturing quality also matter. Pratt & Whitney's January 2025 expansion in Asheville, North Carolina, concerned that demanding chain of production—and bringing more of it into one facility. The RTX business announced an additional $285 million investment and 325 planned jobs on January 28\. The expansion would increase the plant's output of turbine airfoils for programs including the GTF commercial engine family and the F135 military engine. The commitment was substantial, but the more revealing question was which manufacturing step the site would gain. By April, Asheville general manager Dan Field had described the answer in an interview with WNC Business: an added casting foundry. The plant already performed machining, coating, hole drilling and finishing. Casting would create the airfoil's initial shape at the same location, extending the factory's role further upstream. ## The unfinished part inside the finished engine RTX's own June 2025 account of the plant explains why airfoil production involves more than making a metal shape. Precisely positioned holes help control cooling, while specialized coatings improve resistance to the heat inside the engine. Those operations influence how long components can remain in service. The company described Asheville as a 1.2 million-square-foot plant focused on machining, coating and finishing, with the foundry still to come. That contemporaneous distinction prevents the January investment from being mistaken for an already operating casting line. Combining production steps can reduce the number of transfers a part requires. Field told WNC Business that the earlier production route involved operations in four states, while Asheville had consolidated much of that work. Adding casting was a further move toward carrying a part through more of its manufacturing sequence within the same site. It did not follow that all equipment or skills were immediately available. In the April interview, Field expected the first foundry equipment at the end of 2026 and initial parts around the middle of 2027\. Those were forecasts made in 2025, placing the new capability more than two years beyond the investment announcement. ## A different skill alongside more jobs The hiring commitment also required more than enlarging the existing workforce. Field identified a shortage of local casting expertise and pointed to higher-education partners as part of the response. He said almost 90 percent of the plant's existing workforce had been hired locally, many without previous aerospace experience. The January announcement put the average salary for the proposed new positions at $62,413, compared with a Buncombe County average of $54,416, and projected more than $20 million in annual payroll. Those figures described the intended economic contribution once hiring occurred; they did not show that the additional jobs were already filled. For the region, the project offered an expansion commitment from an established employer. For Pratt & Whitney, its significance lay in the production process: more control over making the specialized components used in both commercial and military engines. The evidence available during 2025 supported that direction without completing the story. Funding commitments, technical plans and a training network were in place. Installing the foundry, developing its workforce and producing acceptable parts remained the work that would convert the announcement into added engine-component supply. ## Sources - [Pratt & Whitney will expand manufacturing operations in Asheville](https://www.ashevillechamber.org/news-events/press-releases/pratt-whitney-expands-in-asheville/?ref=pvweekly.com) — Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce / Economic Development Coalition · 2025-01-28. - [Pratt & Whitney to Expand Asheville Facility, Bringing More Than 300 Jobs to Western North Carolina](https://www.wncbusiness.com/2025/04/24/530135/pratt-whitney-to-expand-asheville-facility-bringing-more-than-300-jobs-to-western-north-carolina?ref=pvweekly.com) — WNC Business · 2025-04-24. - [Making a more durable GTF engine](https://www.rtx.com/news/2025/06/06/making-a-more-durable-gtf-engine?ref=pvweekly.com) — RTX · 2025-06-06.