Press Release

Issued by Pratt & Whitney.

November 11, 2014

Pratt & Whitney's PurePower® engine family reached another milestone this year when it exceeded 12,000 hours of testing. The milestone comes after a year of accomplishments, including the Airbus A320neo first flight, the Gulfstream G500 and G600 business jets launch and the Mitsubishi Regional Jet aircraft rollout – all of which are powered by PurePower engines. The PurePower engine family has completed more than 23,500 cycles of testing and 1,700 hours of flight testing. Pratt & Whitney is a division of United Technologies Corp.

"The successes we have achieved speak to our dedication to developing a mature and reliable next generation engine," said Greg Gernhardt, president, Pratt & Whitney commercial engines. "Next year is going to be historic for the Geared Turbofan (GTF) engines. Pratt & Whitney commercial engines will have five active flight tests, three GTF engine certifications, and two planes powered by GTF engines entering into service by the end of 2015." 

The maiden flight of the A320neo aircraft occurred on Sept. 25, several weeks ahead of schedule. With the first flight of the A320neo, Pratt & Whitney now has two PurePower engine platforms powering aircraft in test flights.

Gulfstream Aerospace launched its new family of G500 and G600 business jets, which will be powered exclusively by Pratt & Whitney Canada's PurePower PW800 engine, a 16,000-pound-thrust class engine, on Oct. 14.

Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation rolled out its first MRJ in Nagoya, Japan, on Oct. 18. Mitsubishi, the first company to choose this next generation technology, will exclusively power the MRJ with PurePower PW1200G engines. 

The PurePower Geared Turbofan engine family has more than 6,000 orders and commitments, including options, for five different aircraft platforms: the Mitsubishi MRJ, Airbus A320neo, Bombardier CSeries, Embraer E-Jets E2, and Irkut MC-21. The PurePower engines will deliver double-digit improvements in fuel burn, noise and emissions to all customers.