Pratt & Whitney has officially inaugurated the Pratt & Whitney Puerto Rico Aguadilla Engineering Center in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. The celebration also included a $500,000 donation by Pratt & Whitney to the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló and representatives from the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company (PRIDCO) attended the ceremony alongside several Pratt & Whitney and UTC executives.
Pratt & Whitney celebrated the official inauguration of the Pratt & Whitney Puerto Rico Aguadilla Engineering Center on December 10, 2018.
The renovated $14M facility, made possible through a collaboration with PRIDCO, is 104,000 square feet and houses more than 800 Pratt & Whitney Puerto Rico employees with the capacity for 400 more. The facility is on track for LEED Silver certification with multiple features designed with sustainability in mind. It also has an open-concept floorplan to support communication and collaboration.
Pratt & Whitney Puerto Rico, formerly Infotech Aerospace Services (IAS), is an aerospace engineering centre that designs, evaluates and supports Pratt & Whitney's game-changing commercial and military gas turbine engines, including the Geared Turbofan engine. Since entering into service in early 2016, the GTF engine has demonstrated its promised ability to reduce fuel burn by 16 percent, to reduce NOx emissions by 50 percent to the regulatory standard and to lower the noise footprint by 75 percent.
"We brought IAS into the Pratt & Whitney family because we recognized the tremendous potential the business offered us — in particular, the talented engineers and employees," said Geoff Hunt, senior vice president of Engineering, Pratt & Whitney. "I want to thank PRIDCO for their support in making this beautifully renovated facility possible. This is something we can all come together to celebrate, especially in light of the devastation of Hurricane Maria.