The Podkarpacie Aviation Valley is a business project launched in southeastern Poland by three partners: the WSK PZL Rzeszów factory, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation (UTC); the Rzeszów University of Technology; and Ultratech, a private, family-run and wholly Polish-owned company in the aviation industry.

The project is an example of cooperation between science and industry, both large and small. It proves that only an economy based on innovation, educated workers and free-market rules stands a chance of success.

WSK PZL Rzeszów has 70 years of tradition in the aviation business. It is the biggest company and the largest employer in the Podkarpacie region in southeastern Poland. It employs a staff of 4,500 and works with about 700 businesses in the region.

The factory was established in 1937 on the basis of an idea by Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski, Poland's deputy prime minister in charge of the economy at the time. The factory was the biggest investment project in an area known as the Central Industrial Region. The plant was expected to create many new jobs and help develop Poland's armaments industry in the face of a growing threat of war.

As a government-run company, the plant manufactured various types of airplane engines for more than 60 years. In 1990, Russia stopped paying for its orders, and the factory had to lay off 6,000 workers. The then marketing director, Marek Darecki, desperately started to look for new customers. He even approached the Rolls-Royce corporation. Today, Darecki is president and general manager of WSK PZL Rzeszów and president of the Aviation Valley Association.

In 2002, the United Technologies Corporation bought 85 percent of WSK PZL Rzeszów's stock for $70 million. It also invested a further $100 million in modernizing the plant.

Today, the Rzeszów plant combines tradition and several generations of experience with the latest technology and research achievements. "Our mission is to create a world-class construction and production center for engine modules as well as complete aviation engines," says Darecki. "Also, we want to build a business organization that meets the highest world standards."

Wind in their sails
WSK PZL Rzeszów is undergoing a restructuring process because the company's managers say that "those who stand still move backwards." The key to success is the proportional development of all areas, including technology, organization and people. All the main production buildings have been renovated to UTC standards. New machines and equipment have been purchased, and the IT system has been modernized. The most modern technologies are being implemented, and new production lines are being built. Since the company was privatized, more than 2,000 new aviation components have been added to the factory's product range. Engineers at WSK help develop modern engine modules and complete engines that are later produced by Pratt & Whitney, which is also part of UTC. The company wants to specialize in the manufacture of highly complicated products as their core business. They have built four centers of excellence for products such as:
- combustion chambers, diffusers, generators and exhaust systems;
- precision castings including turbine blades and integral diffusers;
- aircraft engine ducts;
- transmissions for airplanes and helicopters.

These excellence centers produce aircraft engine parts that meet the highest international standards. They are based on UTC know-how and have been developed in close cooperation with Polish research institutes and universities.

The ongoing transformation of the company has resulted in a fourfold increase in sales between 2001 and 2007, without an increase in staff numbers. Ninety percent of the output is exported to prestigious customers, including aviation industry leaders in the United States and Canada.

Safety is the company's driving principle. Its management system combines business strategies with environmental protection and occupational safety strategies. The company's goal is zero work-related accidents. The company's occupational safety program rewards those workers and divisions in which there are no accidents and which do the most to improve work safety practices. WSK PZL Rzeszów works by the principle of sustainable development for its production processes.

Company means people
"Next to modern technology and organization, people are the main asset of a company," says Darecki. WSK PZL Rzeszów strives to have the best qualified staff. Its managers participate in various conferences and seminars in Poland and abroad, and join various management training workshops. For many, language courses open doors to international careers within the UTC group. For two years, 800 workers have been studying English at the company's expense. Many employees have enrolled for bachelor's, master's and postgraduate programs as well as MBA studies at universities. "Higher education is 100-percent financed under the Scholar program," Darecki says.
Since 2002, WSK has taken on 900 employees; their average age is 23. Under an agreement with the Rzeszów University of Technology, the company offers internships to top fourth- and fifth-year students.

Education is key
The Rzeszów University of Technology, named after 19th-century Polish inventor Ignacy £ukasiewicz, is the largest institution of higher education in the Podkarpacie region. It provides scientific support for WSK PZL Rzeszów.

The university runs Poland's only academic Aviation Training Center that in April celebrated its 30th birthday. To date, it has trained 486 civil aviation pilots, who fly for various airlines, both domestic and international.

More than 12,000 students attend the university, where they are taught by 676 lecturers. Since 1971 the school has been training engineers for the aviation industry in its Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics. The university runs laboratories for Diesel Engines, Construction Research, Stereolithography and Mechanical Processing.

Laboratory of the future
A modern Research and Development Laboratory for Aerospace Materials opened at the university in October 2005. It operates as an independent entity out of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics. The laboratory conducts research and development work for companies active in the Aviation Valley.

Prof. Andrzej Sobkowiak, rector of the Rzeszów University of Technology, says the laboratory is ultramodern and will also be used by researchers from the Warsaw University of Technology; the Silesian University of Technology; the Lublin University of Technology; the AGH University of Science and Technology in Cracow; the Institute of Metallurgy and Materials Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow; and the Institute of Fundamental Technological Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw.

Before technology is implemented in production, research must be conducted in a laboratory. This includes studies of directional crystallization processes; nickel-based monocrystalline superalloy production; the performance of heat- and creep-resistant coatings on aircraft turbine engines; and high-speed machining (HSM) treatment.

Training courses and scientific seminars for industry are also planned, as well as research and certification tests commissioned by industry. The laboratory will also promote scientific and technological achievements in the area of new materials technologies and their implementation by aviation industry companies. This will enable students, both undergraduate and postgraduate, as well as trainee engineers to learn about hi-tech technologies and their introduction into industry.

The laboratory will also conduct development work and applied research directly for the needs of industry. It will help select materials technologies for aviation companies in the Podkarpacie region and the entire country. The laboratory's facilities can be also used by foreign companies. As a result, the lab will become a major partner for businesses that decide to invest in the Science and Technology Park currently under development in Jasionka near Rzeszów.

The laboratory is adapting its equipment to international standards and applying for certification recognized in the aviation industry. This is associated with the need to meet not only Polish standards but also those of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). These are key standards for technological processes in the aviation industry. At the same time, the laboratory is seeking clearance from relevant institutions in order to comply with ISO/ICE 17025 quality assurance standards. It has also applied for certification for its research procedures in keeping with the NADCAP standards for specialist processes and research procedures in the aviation industry.

The Research and Development Laboratory for Aerospace Materials-along with other research facilities used at the Department of Materials Science- has been divided into specialist sections to conduct research in the following areas: mechanical properties; metallographic research; electron microscopy; chemical composition analysis; phase transitions; production of castings using directional crystallization method and monocrystallization; and the production of layers using the CVD method.

Businesses great and small
Ultratech Sp. z o.o., the third partner in the Podkarpacie Aviation Valley venture, is one of 60 small and medium-sized businesses that produce various components for the aviation industry as part of the project. Based in Rzeszów, Ultratech is a private and wholly Polish-owned family business established in July 2000. It was founded by three engineers who formerly worked for WSK Rzeszów. The company specializes in the mechanical processing of aeronautical parts and in building instruments for processing and assembly. Its key customers include Goodrich Krosno Sp. z o.o., which buys undercarriages from Ultratech, and WSK PZL Rzeszów, which chiefly buys aircraft engines. Ultratech relies on a staff of 46, including 14 employees with higher education. It has six Japanese numerically controlled machines, a large 5-axis processing center made in Italy, and several conventional machines.

Marek Bujny, the company's vice-president and operations director, says Ultratech would have more than 100 employees today were it not for a drastic decline in orders for aircraft parts following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States and the resulting slump on the international aviation market. Still, the company is developing, Bujny said, and will soon move its production to a brand-new factory.
Danuta Górecka