PBS Aerospace ramps up to meet demand for small jet engines

PBS Aerospace's TJ40-G2 turbojet engine, designed for unmanned aircraft, produces about 425 N of thrust and features an integrated generator. (PBS Aerospace)

PBS Aerospace, the US subsidiary of Czechia-based PBS Group, is building small jet engines at a new facility to meet growing US demand.

In February 2025, the company announced that it was investing USD20 million to build a manufacturing plant and research and development centre in Roswell, Georgia.

“We gutted a building, redesigned it for a jet engine factory, moved in April 1 [2025], and then by September 1 actually had test cells installed, technicians hired, test assembly lines stood up, and were testing our first jet engines,” Erin Durham, CEO for PBS Aerospace, told Janes on 5 June.

“In the last six months or so, we've filled out our US supply chain, and we're ramping up right now into high-rate production of our TJ40s, which is our smallest jet engine. They're about 100 lb of thrust,” he said, adding that work to ramp up production of the 200-lb thrust TJ80 engine is underway.

“We have a brand-new engine coming out in the 500-lb [thrust] range, which is more along the small CCA [collaborative combat aircraft] kind of activities. That's in final development right now. All our engines are on the smaller side, between 100 [lb] and that 500-lb class. We have a 3[00]-400 lb class in our TJ100s and TJ150s. But here in the US, the popular ones, for both the interceptors and the low-cost cruise missiles, are the TJ40s and the TJ80s. That's what we're really seeing the very high demand for,” Durham said.