Pratt & Whitney's GTF geared turbofan demonstrator programme completed a total of 406h of testing, including 250h on the ground at its Florida facility and 120h in flight - 44h during 12 flights attached to its in-house Boeing 747SP testbed and 76h over 27 flights on the Airbus A340-600 development aircraft.
"We were able to complete all flight-test objectives with flawless engine operation," says P&W vice-president for the next-generation product family Bob Saia. "The engine performed exceptionally throughout the programme under extremely challenging tests," he adds.
P&W is now preparing to begin detail design of the first production PW1000G GTF engines in mid-2009 to power the Bombardier CSeries and Mitsubishi MRJ regional jet, which are due to enter service in 2013.
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Source: Flight International
