{"id":27920,"date":"2023-06-01T09:39:26","date_gmt":"2023-06-01T13:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/?p=27920"},"modified":"2023-06-01T09:39:29","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T13:39:29","slug":"houlahan-celebrates-opening-of-piasecki-in-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/?p=27920","title":{"rendered":"Houlahan celebrates opening of Piasecki in Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rep. Chrissy Houlahan at the Piasecki ribbon cutting ceremony.<\/p><\/div>\n

On Wednesday, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-6) celebrated the opening of Piasecki Aircraft Corporation (PiAC)\u2019s new Heliplex facility in Coatesville. Houlahan had the opportunity to view several models of vertical lift aircraft manufactured by Piasecki and learn of others to be produced at the state-of-the-art research and development facility. The innovative site will be used for design, manufacturing, and flight testing of their Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft and the company\u2019s PA-890 helicopter, the world\u2019s first zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell rotorcraft. Production at the facility will begin later this year and Piasecki anticipates the factory will employ about 400 workers by 2028. This location was operated by Lockheed Martin\/Sikorsky until early 2022. <\/p>\n

Houlahan has been a staunch advocate for keeping aviation manufacturing at home in Chester County. In 2019, Lockheed Martin\/Sikorsky announced it would close the Heliplex facility in Coatesville, but Houlahan, as well as President Donald Trump,\u00a0called<\/a>\u00a0on Lockheed Martin\/Sikorsky to keep hundreds of jobs alive for Southeastern Pennsylvanians. Lockheed Martin\/Sikorsky responded to these requests by keeping the facility open, but eventually\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0it\u00a0would\u00a0close\u00a0the plant in\u00a0March\u00a0of\u00a02022. Houlahan\u00a0held a job fair in October 2021<\/a>\u00a0in West Chester, PA for all residents of Chester\u00a0and Berks\u00a0Counties, but\u00a0specifically\u00a0aimed to assist those employed at the Lockheed Martin\/Sikorsky Heliplex Facility\u00a0to\u00a0secure new jobs.\u00a0Piasecki\u2019s\u00a0purchase and renovation\u00a0of\u00a0the Coatesville\u00a0facility will allow this hub to continue innovating and bolster jobs for the community after its year-and-a-half long vacancy.<\/p>\n

\u201cChester County is home to some of the most talented manufacturing and tech workforces in the country,\u201d\u00a0said Houlahan.\u00a0\u201cPiasecki\u2019s expansion into Coatesville is further testament to what many of us have known for years\u00a0\u2014Chester County is a great place to grow your business. It\u2019s incredibly exciting to see a company like Piasecki, a long-time aviation industry innovator, continue their commitment to developing new technologies like the PA-890 hydrogen fuel cell-powered helicopter right here in PA\u2019s sixth district. These advancements have the potential to transform vertical lift flight and help eliminate carbon emissions. Piasecki\u2019s Coatesville expansion will revitalize the manufacturing facilities which were formerly home to Lockheed Martin\/Sikorsky Heliplex. I\u2019m proud to support their vision and will continue to support innovations such as hydrogen fuel cell development through my work in Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis world-class facility will serve as a strong foundation for future growth and will enable us to expand our R&D and production capabilities as we deliver transformational vertical lift technologies to the defense and commercial markets,\u201d\u00a0said Piasecki CEO John Piasecki.\u00a0\u201cWe chose to expand our development capabilities in the Delaware Valley because of its deep roots within the helicopter industry, its highly-talented workforce, and its robust supplier network. PiAC is committed to creating local jobs by fostering cutting-edge innovation and we\u2019re excited to support a community that has long prided itself on delivering aviation excellence.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-6) celebrated the opening of Piasecki Aircraft Corporation (PiAC)\u2019s new Heliplex facility in Coatesville. Houlahan had the opportunity to view several models of vertical lift aircraft manufactured by Piasecki and learn of others to be produced at the state-of-the-art research and development facility. The innovative site will be used for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[5787,3162,11134],"class_list":["post-27920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-chrissy-houlahan","tag-featured","tag-piasecki"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27920"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27921,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27920\/revisions\/27921"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}