Pratt Wants to Ride Mustang

Pratt & Whitney Canada will propose a smaller member of the PW600 family for the new Cessna Mustang, says president Alan Bellemare, and expects to fly its new PW625 small turbofan engine on its Boeing 720 testbed within a few weeks. Competition to power the baby Cessna will come from Williams International, which beat the PW600 in the contest to power the newly announced Citation CJ3.

The company "walked away feeling proud" from the CJ3 contest, says Bellemare. "We had a debrief with Cessna and we understand that nothing we did could have caused the decision to be different. There were strategic reasons for staying with the incumbent, but we had a competitive bid package."

P&WC vp of business aviation John Wright tells Show News that the company will start testing components for a smaller PW600 "in the near future." The first engine to fly was developed under an agreement with Raytheon and is rated at 2,400 pounds of thrust, but the PW600-with its two-stage axial-plus-centrifugal compressor-was designed to be easily scaled from under 1,500 pounds to 3,000 pounds.

Bellemare defends P&WC's decision to focus on the larger PW300 series of engines in the late 1990s while Williams expanded its share of the small-engine market. "We were very successful with the PW500 and PW300. Everything is a matter of priority."

P&WC is "in discussions" with North American manufacturers about possible uses for its new PW800, a geared-fan engine for regional airliners and large business jets. Bellemare calls the engine (developed with MTU and Fiat Avio) a "game-changer . . . it represents the next big step in performance for large regional aircraft." It is also being considered for regional jet projects in Russia and China.

P&WC has a three-prong strategy, says Bellemare: "Leverage our success with the PW300 and PW500, launch the PW600 on an entry-level jet, and expand upwards with the PW300 and PW800."