PW&C Eyes Non-Mainstream Customers for PW600F

Pratt & Whitney Canada's first customer for the PW600F turbofan engine may not be Cessna, New Piper, Raytheon or any of the other namebrand turbine aircraft manufacturers, according to P&WC president and CEO Gilles Ouimet: yesterday he said his company has been talking with airframers that have never built a turbine aircraft.

P&WC is concentrating on development of a 2,000- to 2,500-lbs-thrust class demonstrator that will run in a test cell by the end of next year, and will fly on P&WC's Boeing 720 test aircraft by mid-2002. Development of a 1,000- to 2,000-lbs-thrust turbofan and a turboprop variant will follow.

Ouimet declined to be specific, but said P&WC wants to be a player in the emerging entry-level turbine aircraft niche.