GE Aerospace is spending $11.75 billion to buy Consolidated Precision Products, a Cleveland-based maker of engine castings, in a deal that brings together two major Ohio aerospace companies under one roof. The Cincinnati-headquartered engine maker announced the acquisition Tuesday, framing it as a way to seize direct control over a supply-chain component that has bedeviled the entire industry since air travel rebounded from the pandemic.
Castings and forgings have been a major supply-chain constraint for engine makers, and CPP's products go straight into that choke point. The company makes highly engineered castings for commercial and military aircraft, defense systems and industrial gas turbines, according to Axios. GE Aerospace plans to fund the purchase with $7 billion in existing cash and new debt, a structure that values CPP at approximately 18 times its estimated 2027 EBITDA including expected net synergies and approximately 26 times without them, per GlobeNewswire.
A Cleveland Supplier Ohio Already Knew Well
Consolidated Precision Products operates more than 20 facilities, including sites in Cleveland and several of its suburbs, and employs about 6,600 people, according to Axios's reporting. The company was founded in 1991 in Cleveland and has served as an external supplier to GE Aerospace for more than 15 years, according to a report by Dow Jones carried by Morningstar. CPP was being sold by private equity firms Warburg Pincus, which originally acquired the company in 2011, and Berkshire Partners, with roughly 60% of its revenue coming from commercial aerospace customers and 40% from defense, power and industrial gas turbine markets, the Dow Jones account notes.
Cleveland's aerospace history also predates the CPP acquisition: Cleveland Historical reports that NASA Glenn opened west of Cleveland in 1941 as the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory. According to NASA Glenn Research Center, the Cleveland facility was established by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in 1941 to study all aspects of aircraft, underscoring the region's longstanding aerospace role.
James Stewart said GE Aerospace expressed strong enthusiasm for supporting CPP's continued growth and expanded vision, according to Axios. The castings CPP produces serve critical hot-section roles across engine programs including the CFM LEAP, GEnx, T700, F110 and F404, addressing shortages that have repeatedly delayed post-pandemic jet engine deliveries, according to a report from Kalkine. Jet engine castings require complex superalloy pouring techniques that make it difficult for outside vendors to scale capacity quickly, the same Kalkine report notes.
GE's Largest Deal Since Its 2024 Breakup
The $11.75 billion transaction marks GE Aerospace's largest acquisition since it completed its three-way corporate breakup from General Electric in April 2024, splitting off GE Vernova and GE HealthCare to become an independent standalone aerospace company, per Kalkine's reporting. GE Aerospace Chairman and CEO Larry Culp said the company plans to introduce its proprietary lean operating model, FLIGHT DECK, across CPP's manufacturing facilities to boost casting output and speed up deployment of next-generation airfoils, according to the GlobeNewswire release. GE Aerospace expects demand for airfoils, which include turbine blades and vanes, to grow more than 30% by 2030, per Axios.
Culp said he does not anticipate regulatory or antitrust obstacles to closing the deal, which is expected in the second half of 2027, telling Aviation Week that the acquisition is meant to build internal casting capacity rather than restrict competitive market access. The deal still requires regulatory approval and remains subject to customary closing adjustments, according to Axios. GE Aerospace has not disclosed the number or locations of any potential new jobs tied to the acquisition, though Axios reports the company will likely add jobs through the deal.
Part Of A Broader Ohio Aerospace Buildout
Chelsey Levingston said GE Aerospace is continuing to invest in its manufacturing base in Cincinnati and greater Ohio, and that the CPP transaction represents an investment in GE Aerospace's customers and a strong signal for the local aviation industry, according to Axios. That framing tracks with the company's other recent spending: GE Aerospace invested more than $160 million across its Ohio facilities in 2026, including $115 million in Cincinnati alone, as part of a $1 billion national program covering engine test cell modernization and specialized tooling at sites in Evendale, West Chester and Adams County, according to a report from the People's Defender. The Peebles Test Operation in Adams County has been testing GE engines since the early 1950s, that report notes.
The CPP deal lands amid a broader surge in Southwest Ohio's aerospace corridor. Defense engine startup Beehive Industries announced a $70 million expansion in the region in July, acquiring local machine shops Able Tool Corporation and Planet Products Corporation to scale production of its 3D-printed Frenzy jet engines beyond 8,000 units annually, a move expected to add more than 200 local manufacturing jobs, according to Beehive Industries. Hybrid-electric aircraft startup Electra separately selected a site in Springfield for an $850 million factory for its nine-passenger EL9 aircraft and to create 1,975 jobs, according to Airport Industry-News.
Ohio's aerospace footprint underpins that growth. The state supported more than 110,000 aerospace industry workers across over 600 companies as of 2025 and stood as the top U.S. supplier state for Airbus, which spent nearly $5 billion with Ohio suppliers in 2024 alone, according to 10TV. A Boeing 747 flying test bed that GE Aerospace uses to test its newest engines came to CVG earlier this year, Axios reports, another sign of how central the Cincinnati region has become to the company's operations as it works to fold a major Cleveland casting supplier into its own factory floor.
