The highlight of Pratt & Whitney Canada's presence here at NBAA is a previously unseen mockup of its newest engine family--the PW600 -- which is now in the advanced design stage.

Aimed at the general aviation and small business jet market, the PW600 will be an all-new 1,000- to 2,000-pounds-thrust turbofan capable of powering four- to six-seat aircraft. A turboprop variant is planned in the 500-900 shp range, as well as a small turboshaft for light helicopters.

"This can't be a million dollar engine," PWC chairman and CEO David Caplan told Show News. "It has to power aircraft below today's $3.5 million entry-level business jets. So we are applying technology that is affordable."

PWC's challenge is to design an engine that meets the pocketbook of the lighter end of the market in terms of price and life cycle costs, while reducing weight and parts count yet providing acceptable performance.

"It is hard to define what the market defines as value," Caplan said. So Pratt is asking operators at NBAA to fill out a questionnaire asking just what they are prepared to pay for.

"First, the price is interesting. But will an operator pay so much more for each attribute?" asked John Wright, VP of marketing for corporate engines. "How much extra will he pay for extra range, more seats, more speed, or faster time to climb versus the cost for us to produce that?"

Needless to say, reliability and customer support are not part of that equation, said Caplan. "They cannot be compromised."
Investment in the engine is "significant," and Pratt's business plan calls for "significant" volume to amortize the costs. "We see sizeable volumes in the future, and a sizeable opportunity," said Caplan. No applications are yet signed up, but interest in the engine is significant, he said.

Pratt is embarking on the new program against a background of major successes with its other new or nearly-new engines--the PW500 and PW300 turbofans, the PW200 turboshaft, and advanced versions of the PT6--which together account for 15 new installations worldwide between 1999 and 2001. "That is a lot of product to fly or about to fly," said Caplan. "It's the result of a lot of R&D over the last few years."

Applications include the 4,600-6,500 pounds thrust PW300 series in the Hawker 1000, Learjet 60, Galaxy, Citation Sovereign, Hawker Horizon and Fairchild Dornier Envoy 3 business aircraft as well as the 328JET and 428JET regional airliners.

The most recent 2,750-4,500 pounds thrust PW500 engine replaces the JT15D and is aimed at entry-level to midsize intercontinental business jets. It powers the Citation Ultra Encore, Excel and Bravo.

Versions of the PT6 engine power the 15-passenger Agusta Bell 139 utility helicopter, the Agusta A119 Koala single-engined helicopter, the Agusta Bell BA 609 Tiltrotor, and the Beechcraft T-6A Texan II JPATS trainer.

Caplan noted the PW200 turboshaft engine is now flying on five helicopters since entering service in mid-1995: the MD900, EC135, Agusta A109 Power, Bell 427, and the eight passenger Kazan Ansat, which first flew this year.

A new turboshaft derivative of the PW127 turboprop was recently chosen to power the new Eurocopter-Mil Mi-38 helicopter being developed by the Russian-European Euromil venture.

As PWC rapidly expands its customer base worldwide, so the task of meeting customer expectations increases, Caplan said. And those expectations are changing: for example, fractional business jet owners are flying their aircraft twice as much as the traditional flight department, and with double the engine use they still expect airline standards of reliability. "Now we must design engines with that kind of use in mind. It will raise the bar for everybody," he said.

A bonus for the business aircraft operator is that the high utilization of the fractionals, and of the PW300 engine on the Fairchild Dornier 328JET, will lead to much more rapid maturation of the engines on business jets, which typically fly only 500 hours a year.
Looking ahead, Caplan said there are additional opportunities for the PW300/500 series as "several" manufacturers around the world actively review engines in that class; in addition, he sees further opportunities for the PT6.

Other strategic plans call to develop the corporate engine range to 8,000 pounds thrust, and to make a success of the general aviation market.

"In this age if you are not moving forward, you are definitely moving backward," Caplan said.

By John Morris