Transport and Aviation

lis S perci sterBlack Hawk Sikorsky s-zoi helicopters, and components for the latestBoeing 787 Dreamliner, F-16 fighters, Airbus A380 and Eurocopter arethe most spectacular examples of products manufactured at the AviationValley c1uster in Poland. "This year we will keep the sales level at USD1.Sbillion," says Andrzej Rybka, Director of the Aviation Valley Association.

The Aviation Valley in south-eastern Poland has alreadydeveloped to become a powerful eluster for the designand manufacture of helicopters, airplanes and aircraftcomponents for global aviation giants including Boeing,Airbus, Eurocopter and Latecoere. The eluster brings to-gether businesses operating in the aviation sector in threeprovinces in south-eastern Poland, mainly in Podkarpac-kie province wit h the capital city Rzeszów. At the begin-ning of the decade, when the eluster was established, itwas compo ed of 18 companies providing employmenllO9,000 people. Today there are 90 companies in the clus-ter and they employ 23,000 employees with the highestqualifications.

According to Andrzej Rybka, the Aviation Valley owesits success to its excellent staff. With more than 70 years ofexperience in aircraft production, a high technical culturehad developed in the area, making it possible for the 10-cal taff to embrace new technologies at a pace which wonadmiration and recognition from the world leading avia-tion frrrns investing in t he Aviation Valley. This is how PZLMielec embraced the technology provided by the U heli-cepter giant Sikorsky. The conversion of the PZL Świdnikhelicopter manufacturing plant, after its acquisition by

gu ta Westland, to meet the needs of the Italia n-Britishinvestor, is going on al a similar fast pace. The turbocharg-er plant of BorgWarner Turbo Systems of the United Statesand a subsidiary of MTU Aeroengines, a Bavarian aerospacegiant, are already working at fulI team. Another large aer-ospace corporation, Goodrich, is doing business in the cityof Krosno and is going to build more manufacturing plantsin the cluster. "Million will be invested in the AviationValley in the near futurę," says Andrzej Rybka. "Interestin aur eluster is not declining."

Bul t he Aviation Valley doe not rely for its future onforeign inve tors alone. Of special signińcance is collab-oration between the aviation industry and the researchector. The Centre for Advanced Technologie Aeronet >

Aviation Valley ha been set up for this purpo e. It bringstogether businesses operating in the eluster and II univer-sities of technology and scientific institutes that eonduetresearch needed for the development of technologies u edby the aviation industry.

Collaboration w ith the universities also has an educaLional dimension. The universitie train new staff with the

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highest qua l ifications for the needsof the aviation industry. The Rzeszów

niversity of Technology, with itsFaculty of Mechanical Engineeringand Aeronautics, plays a leading rolein this respect. It is al the top of theeducation pyramid built by the Avia-tion Valley. Secondary schools makeup its lower leve!. There are already12 econdary vocational Scl1001s inPodkarpackie province sponsoredby the Aviation Valley, which offersconsultat ion for t he teachers andassistance in equipping their labsand modernising their curricula. Thechools al o receive assi tance from

European Union ources under theRegional Operational Programme.

This comprehensive efforts to cre-ale su itable condition for the aero-pace industry have attracted wide

interest from global manufactureroperating in the sector. In order torespond lo this interest, the via-lian Valley organises trade missionto France, Germany and the Unit-ed States, and seeks promotion at allimportanl aerospace indu try exhi-bit ions. The re ults of these acLiviLiesare increasingly evident. However,the Aviation Valley looks not only atdi tant counlries to develop it ini-tiative . The economic slowdown inalmost all countrie prompted theAviation Valley to look for strearn-lining opportunitie , re erve andan additional potent ial for expa n-sion. These were found in a Slovakautornotive cluster. Due to the er i-sis of the automotive indu try, Slo-vak companies turned their interestlo the aviat ion sector, The produć-lian and cooperation potential of t heSlovak plants which are potential

partners for Polish aviation cornpa-nies is naw being analy ed. Many ofthem have modern numerically eon-trolled manufacturi ng equ ipment andstaff trained to wark with moderntechnologie . It quickly turned outthat the technical univer ity in the

lovak city of Źilina may be an excel-lent partner for the Rzeszów Uni er-sity of Technology. And lovak rnan-ufacturer of ultralight aircraft maybecome partners for smali AviationValley companies which produce gen-eral aviation aircraft. The designer ofthe Slovak companies' flag hip ex-port product, the Dynarnic aircraft,is a Pole living in Slovakia.

But Andrzej Rybka stresse theaviation community are not the onlypeople beh ind the success of the Avi-ation Valley. "A great role is playedby awareness on the part of the au-thorit.ies, especially the authoritieof Podkarpackie province and theRzeszów mu n icipa lity, as well asgrowing numbers ar local residentsthat the developmeru of the aviationindustry has become a chance forthe development of the region as awhole," Andrzej Rybka says. "Thankto t his, we are ceasing to be, or ac-tually have already ceased to be 'Po-land B' [as the less developed easternpart ar Poland is traditionally called

ed.]. One can Ily from the Rzeszówairport directly to many countries.Foreign investors are intere ted inus. It makes ense to receive educa-Lion from aur schools and this edu-cation is al the highest leve!. Al t hesame time, we have an industry ablelo co-exist with aur splendid naturalenvironmenl and create a high qualiry of life."