A large American flag dominates a wall at Pratt & Whitney's International Aerospace Tubes plant on Kentucky Avenue.
Beneath the flag, a hundred Hoosiers use sophisticated dies and machines to make 7,000 different tubes for jet engines. Most of them have more than 20 years of experience; many have 40. Pretty soon that won't matter.
Pratt & Whitney, which gained full control of IAT in 2006, has decided to consolidate the local operation into a fairly new plant in Singapore. A closing date isn't set yet, but plans are already far along to pack up one of the city's most sophisticated machine shops and ship it all overseas. All except the good jobs that pay well. Those are being eliminated.