On December 6, 2004, Amb. Ashe participated in a ceremony commemorating the opening of the Material Research and Structural Center. The Center was established through cooperation between the U.S. company, Pratt & Whitney, and the Polish Institute of Aviation.
Amb. Ashe highlighted the history of cooperation between the U.S. and Poland, citing our bilateral Open-Skies agreement, the close ties between the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and Poland’s Civil Aviation Office, as well as the heavy investment of U.S. companies in the Polish aviation industry as examples of how our two countries have worked together to see mutual success in the field of aviation.
Amb. Ashe commented that this cooperative effort at the Material Research and Structural Center “represents not just an expenditure of money and labor, but a joint commitment to cutting edge aviation technology and materials science.”
A wide range of representatives of government, industry, and business attended the opening ceremony. In addition to the remarks by Amb. Ashe, Minister Kleiber from the Ministry of Scientific Research and Information Technology, Undersecretary Krystowski from the Ministry of Economy and Labor, Scott Harris from Lockheed Martin, Witold Wisniowski from the Institute of Aviation, and Paul Adams and Robert Robinson from Pratt & Whitney also addressed the audience.
The Material Research and Structural center is located in four newly renovated buildings at the Institute of Aviation. There are a dozen laboratories and over 40 testing machines located at the new facility. The material design center will carry out research on the static fatigue strength of different aerospace materials and construction parts.
Pratt & Whitney, the largest foreign investor in Polish aviation, has been in Poland for 29 years and today operates three facilities -- PW Kalisz, Aerotech Kalisz and PZL Rzeszow -- that employ more than 6,000 people.
Pratt & Whitney, a United Technologies company based in Connecticut, USA, is a world leader in the design, manufacture and service of aircraft engines, space propulsion systems and industrial gas turbines.
To read Ambassador Ashe’s full remarks, click here
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