Pratt & Whitney’s geared turbofan technology will bring even greater benefits when scaled up for widebody aircraft “and we will take a look at any opportunity that presents itself,” says David Hess, president of the engine-maker. “It is our intention to compete in the widebody market; any rumors that we had abandoned that sector were clearly exaggerated.”

The geared turbofan technology, grouped under the PurePower brand name, is crucial to P&W’s future in commercial aerospace. Bringing a fuel burn improvement of 12-15% over current engines, it is what the company unabashedly calls “a step change” as significant as the change from turbojet to the large-fan high bypass ratio engines that power today’s airliners. And Pratt’s engineers aim to improve it by another one percent every year as they embark on a GTF development roadmap.

Hess also wants to win a place for PurePower on the Next Generation Single Aisle replacement for the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737. The preferred avenue to market would be through International Aero Engines, the partnership with Rolls-Royce, MTU and others that offers the V2500 on the A320 family.

“We’re ready today,” Hess told Show News. “And the longer the delay, the better our engine will be.”

If he had a wish, “I’d like to launch a new engine with Airbus,” he joked, though adding that the current economic environment is hardly conducive to starting new products and there is a lot of work ahead to weather the downturn.

The PurePower geared fan has already won as sole powerplant on the Mitsubishi Regional Jet and Bombardier CSeries, and a demonstrator has been successfully tested by Airbus on an A340.

Hess believes PurePower is holding its own against rival claims for open rotor technology. “We can achieve comparable fuel burn benefits and not have to live with the other disadvantages” such as noise, airframe installation, complexity of variable pitch rotor blades, a slower cruise speed, and the problem of blade containment should one break, he said.

Pratt & Whitney and sister company Hamilton Sundstrand are the largest manufacturers in the world of open rotor systems — turboprops and propellers — he noted, “and we have a pretty good idea of how they work.”

Photo: Airbus