Pratt & Whithney PW600 Running at Full Power

Pratt & Whitney Canada's new small turbofan, the 1,000-2,500-pounds-thrust PW625, ran for the first time just a few weeks ago and was demonstrating full power within the first five or six hours.

"We take that for granted for now," said P&WC president and CEO Gilles Ouimet. "In the early days of the PT6 it would take weeks to get the engine stable at idle, let alone at power."

Pratt is continuing to explore opportunities for the engine, but has not announced a launch program yet. Its agreement with Raytheon to jointly develop technology for a PW625 application is still in place, "but it is not exclusive," Ouimet said.

By John Morris