On the Record with ALAIN BELLEMARE, PRESIDENT, PRATT & WHITNEY CANADA
A Big Bienvenue to P&WC, from Dassault
"We had the right engine for the aircraft." And so,
says company president Alain Bellemare, Pratt & Whitney Canada
broke into the lofty of world of Dassault Falcon with a deal to
supply PW308C engines for the French airframer's 2000EX. That's
perhaps making it sound too easy, however, as the deal followed
"many years of effort."
"High intensity," Bellemare told Show News, and
the result was "a very attractive and compelling both technical
and commercial offer."
P&WC was of course very happy to be on the 2000EX, and perhaps
even happier to have been chosen for the Falcon 7X, a trijet.
Deliveries of the 2000EX, with 7,000 pounds thrust PW308Cs, are
just beginning (the aircraft was certified earlier this year),
and the new 6,100 pounds thrust PW307A engine for the Falcon 7X
was run for the first time early this past December.
MHD, a joint venture between Hurel-Hispano and Aermacchi, will
supply the nacelle aerostructure and thrust reverser for the Falcon
7X, while MTU of Germany is a partner on the PW307A engine, responsible
for providing the low-pressure turbine module.
Other significant wins for the 300 series include PW306C engines
for the new Cessna Citation Sovereign, and PW308As for Raytheon's
Hawker Horizon.
In smaller engines, PW&C said in January that its PW615 was
chosen to power Cessna's new Citation Mustang super light jet.
Bellemare termed it a "breakthrough contract," solidifying
his firm's presence in a "fast-emerging" market segment.
The PW615F will be flat-rated at 1,350 pounds thrust at takeoff.
A 2,500 pounds thrust demonstrator engine, the PW625, completed
a first flight on a flying test bed in October 2002
Going even smaller, P&WC said in February that its PW610F,
with 900 pounds thrust at takeoff, was chosen to power the Eclipse
500 after New Mexico-based Eclipse 500 decided against its original
Williams EJ22. The engine is small, but the market potential huge,
as Eclipse hopes to bring the twinjets to customers for less than
$1 million per copy.
Bellemare says that negotiations are in train with at least three
other 600 series customers. The PW600, P&WC claims, offers
up to 40% fewer parts count over a comparable PW500 engine while
achieving similar pressure ratios.
Key to such performance is a concerted R&D effort. "We
are the number one R&D investor in the Canadian aerospace
industry," Bellemare says, maintaining annual outlays of
some $400 million (Canadian, about U.S.$294 million at current
rates of exchange).
P&WC has about 20 new or derivative engines in the development
pipeline. And while business may be slow, "This is a critical
period," Bellemare says, "to keep on developing new
products and looking to the future."
'It Was Supposed to Be a Level Playing Field'
"We're very disappointed to say the least." So says
Pratt & Whitney Canada president Alain Bellemare on the subject
of the A400M, the Airbus military transport for which the Canadian
engine maker had hoped to supply its new PW180 engine, a turboprop
variant of the PW800.
"Airbus invited us," Bellemare says of the process.
"It was supposed to be a level playing field," he laments,
but "at the end of the day it was a different outcome"
-- politics won out and the Europeans decided to go with a European
supplier.
The disappointment goes beyond P&WC to the Pratt group itself,
Bellemare told Show News. "We missed a real opportunity for
future transatlantic cooperation," he says, between Airbus
and Pratt & Whitney for the main Airbus line of passenger
jets.
