Collins Adds 14,000 Square Feet in Iowa for a Plant Shipping 25,000 Engine Nozzles a Month

What the plant does

According to the RTX release and AviTrader, the West Des Moines operation produces advanced fuel distribution systems, including original equipment components and spare parts, and provides maintenance, repair and overhaul work. It supports both commercial and military aircraft platforms.

It ships more than 25,000 engine nozzles every month. The site is also an FAA-certified Part 145 repair station specializing in engine nozzle systems and powerplant accessories, and about 300 people work there full time.

Those figures come from the company, and I found no independent count of the plant's output.

As general background rather than something the release spells out, the nozzles in this part of an engine's fuel system are what turn metered fuel into the spray that burns in the combustor. They are small, precise and numerous, with many on each engine, and they live in one of the harshest environments in the machine. That makes them both a high-volume part and a wear item that is replaced in service, which is why a single site can hold original-equipment manufacturing, spare parts and repair under one roof.

Why a small expansion matters

Airlines and aircraft makers have repeatedly described supply chain bottlenecks as a limiting factor on aircraft output. The bottleneck usually sits in a narrow set of suppliers, such as castings, forgings and electronics, rather than in final assembly.

Collins is saying that this plant is one of those places. In the RTX release, James Bagg, the company's vice president and general manager of Engine Control Systems, framed the expansion as helping to "enhance delivery performance, improve manufacturing capabilities and add jobs." AviTrader's account of his remarks described the investment as part of the company's commitment to its fuel-distribution technology for commercial and military aviation.

The release names no specific delivery shortfall, and none is assumed here. Its stated aim is more floor space to improve how quickly parts leave the plant, rather than a new product.

The hiring plan

Collins said it expects to add roles by the end of 2026, with further hiring continuing into 2027. The company gave no headcount for the new positions, so the size of the job gain cannot be stated.

The timing is notable. Hiring begins before the building is finished, which suggests the company expects to add shifts or equipment in the existing space while construction proceeds. That is an inference, not something the company said.

How this fits Collins's recent spending

AviTrader places the Iowa project in a run of capacity investments. In June 2026, Collins committed $63 million to expand its maintenance, repair and overhaul footprint in Malaysia, tripling the size of its Selangor operation.

The RTX release points back further. In 2023 Collins completed a $14 million, 9,000-square-foot expansion at its Delavan Drive facility in the same city. That work increased capacity in metal additive manufacturing, with state-of-the-art metal 3D printers, and enabled faster production and lighter components. The site holds National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program certification for additive manufacturing.

Put together, the picture is of a supplier investing in two ends of the engine business at once: new-build production capacity in Iowa and aftermarket capacity in Malaysia. The pairing makes commercial sense. Engines are sold at thin margins relative to the decades of spare parts and repairs that follow, and a nozzle plant that serves both original equipment and the aftermarket can move volume between the two as demand shifts.

What the announcement does not say

Several details readers might expect are missing, and the sources reviewed for this report do not supply them.

• The dollar amount. Only "multi-million-dollar" is given.
• The programs served. The release does not say which engines use the added capacity, though it says commercial and military platforms both benefit.
• The output target. The plant ships more than 25,000 nozzles a month today; no goal for after the expansion is stated.
• The number of jobs. Hiring is promised but not quantified.

Without those, any claim that this fixes a particular engine program's delay would be speculation. Engine makers have in recent years pointed at a range of supply constraints, and none of the sources reviewed ties this expansion to any one of them.

Why additive manufacturing keeps appearing

The 2023 project is more than history. Metal 3D printing lets a plant build nozzle geometries that are difficult to machine or cast, and the RTX release credits the earlier expansion with faster production and lighter components. The accreditation for additive work matters because customers and regulators want proof that printed parts are repeatable. Whether the new 14,000 square feet will house more printers, more machining or more repair benches has not been disclosed, and the answer will shape how much of the extra capacity reaches new engines versus the repair stream.

The military side

The release says the site supports military as well as commercial aircraft. That detail is easy to overlook, but it affects how the capacity is likely to be used. Commercial and military engine programs compete for the same specialist suppliers, and a plant that serves both can be pulled in two directions when each side is ramping up.

Whether the added 14,000 square feet is split between them is not stated. What can be said is that both demand streams are mentioned in the company's own explanation of why it is expanding, which is the reason the hiring plan runs through 2027.

Readers should also keep the scale in perspective. Fourteen thousand square feet is a small addition next to a large aerospace factory, and the plant's 300 employees make it a mid-sized site. Its significance lies in concentration: a single location that ships more than 25,000 units a month is a node that many engines depend on, so even incremental capacity there can matter more than its size suggests. That is the case Collins is making, and the numbers it published support the premise without proving the outcome.

The timeline and what to watch

The schedule is short by the standards of aerospace construction: groundbreaking this month, completion about nine months later. A mid-2027 finish means the extra capacity would arrive during the period when many engine programs are expected to run at higher rates, although none of the sources reviewed says how the company ties its schedule to any program's rate plan.

Three things are worth watching:

1. Whether Collins gives a post-expansion output figure when construction wraps.
2. Whether engine makers that buy these parts mention fuel system supply in their own delivery commentary.
3. Whether the hiring promised for 2026 and 2027 materializes on the stated schedule.

Context, honestly stated

This is not a major program announcement. There is no new aircraft, no certification and no order. It is a supplier telling its customers that it is adding floor space at a plant that already ships tens of thousands of units a month.

For an industry that has spent years trying to raise output, announcements of this kind accumulate. Each one adds a little capacity at a little-noticed part of the chain. The industry's progress depends on dozens of such sites, not on any single factory expansion.

The event itself is fresh: the release is dated September 29, 2026, and the AviTrader report September 30. Construction had not yet started at the time of the announcement. Readers should treat the mid-2027 completion as a plan, not a delivered result.

Sources

• RTX, "Collins Aerospace to expand engine components facility to support growth and customer demand" (September 29, 2026) - https://www.rtx.com/news/news-center/2026/09/29/collins-aerospace-to-expand-engine-components-facility-to-support-growth-and-cust
• AviTrader Aviation News, "Collins Aerospace expands Iowa engine components plant" (September 30, 2026) - https://avitrader.com/2026/09/30/collins-aerospace-expands-iowa-engine-components-plant/
• Defence-Industry.eu, "Collins Aerospace announces 14,000-square-foot Iowa plant expansion to increase engine component capacity for commercial and military aircraft" - https://defence-industry.eu/collins-aerospace-announces-14000-square-foot-iowa-plant-expansion-to-increase-engine-component-capacity-for-commercial-and-military-aircraft/