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Rockford Skies: The Power Behind The Planes

At first glance, Rockford doesn’t seem like a place where aerospace would spring up.  Yes, it has an airport, but what morphed this northern Illinois city into a hub for critical aircraft components? 

  In this case, it was a matter of having the right equipment.  

“The machine tool businesses that were here at the time then helped grow that industry, helped enable us to manufacture those kinds of parts here.” 

That’s Robert Guirl, a Strategy and Development Director at UTC Aerospace Systems, known to longtime Rockfordians as Hamilton-Sundstrand -- or simply Sundstrand.  He says that, in their case, switching to aerospace was a matter of finding a new use for their tools.  

“We converted the hydraulic motor transmission devices that were the power systems on machine tools into the constant-speed transmissions that were used in the very early long-range bomber programs and at the onset of the commercial aviation program,” he said.

Even though Sundstrand merged with Goodrich in 2012 to form UTAS, Vice President Stan Kottke says the Rockford operation remains focused on energy. 

Credit UTC Aerospace Systems
An aircraft generator. Some of UTAS' most powerful models can provide up to a megawatt of power.

“They design, develop, and manufacture electric power systems for military, commercial and small regional aircraft.  That would be everything for electrical power generation,” he says.  

And on a modern airplane, electricity serves a variety of purposes. 

“We distribute that power, and then we control that power as it goes and powers the loads throughout the aircraft, whether that be your seating lights, or your in-flight entertainment, or the critical loads the pilot would use to navigate the aircraft,” he says. 

Those critical loads are important in another context.  If a plane’s engines have failed, or something knocks out the generators, modern airplanes have one last emergency system, a Ram Air Turbine.  

Credit UTC Aerospace Systems
A Ram Air Turbine. Planes can deploy these devices when their generators have failed to provide emergency power.

This  pinwheel-shaped device uses the air rushing past a falling aircraft to provide emergency power.  While it can’t energize the entire plane, it can power enough systems for the pilot to make a controlled landing.  UTAS claims its model has saved more than 1,700 lives.

In addition to electrical systems, UTAS’s Rockford installation designs other systems, such as specialized actuators.  

“If you’re familiar with either taking off or landing on a commercial airplane, you’ve noticed the front and back of the plane, the flaps and the slats, will actually change geometry.  They’ll give additional lift to the plane during those critical phases of takeoff and descent,” Kottke explains.  

Kottke says no matter the part, the key is ensuring quality.  With aircraft like the Airbus A380 being inherently expensive and complex, he says systems need to be reliable.

“That aircraft typically sells for over $300 million and, if your one part is not there for that over $300 million aircraft, that is a very serious and important event for us,” he says. 

Despite this challenge, Kottke takes pride in the company’s work -- particularly for the experiences they can provide. 

“We create the infrastructure that enables a family in Rockford, Illinois, to go take their kids down to Disney World without driving 20 hours to get there, and so it’s a very rewarding business to be in because we facilitate a lot of great things throughout the world,” he says.  

While many of UTAS’s specific projects are classified, Kottke says their customers span the globe.  Kottke attributes this success to Rockford’s strong supply base, company partnerships, and what he calls a “Midwest Work Ethic” among employees.  As a result, Guirl says there is considerable investment.  

“The UTAS side has a roughly $250 million payroll and roughly $50 million in supply base.” 

UTAS works with dozens of companies in the Rockford area for support and parts fabrication.  While reluctant to divulge too many examples, Guirl says two of their larger local partners are NTS, which provides environmental testing services for their products, and XPO, a logistics company

Rockford Area Economic Development Council President Michael Nicholas says corporations UTAS and Woodward network through the Rockford Area Aerospace Network.  

“It has members from all the way over in Freeport to West Chicago and up to Milwaukee.  They’re all members of our organization.  These two big powerhouses we have in our area draw more aerospace companies in, and they feed off one another,” he explains. 

And with that inter-connectivity, Rockford’s aerospace industry is flying high. 

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