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Pratt & Whitney Canada Lifts Veil on PW800

Company shows new engine at NBAA.

Pratt & Whitney Canada fans have been waiting for this moment for a long time. In development for the past seven years at Pratt & Whitney Canada’s headquarters near Montreal, the PW800 turbofan engine had its formal unveiling party at the NBAA Convention in Orlando, Florida, this morning as company president John Sabaas lifted the veil from the engine to loud applause on the show floor.

The PW800’s development story will have a happy ending after all with Gulfstream’s selection of the family for its newly launched G500 and G600 large-cabin business jets. First selected for the Cessna Citation Columbus program in 2008, in the form of the PW810C, Pratt & Whitney Canada briefly had to slow the engine development program when that airplane was canceled in the wake of the financial crisis.

But the engine maker’s ability to win the Gulfstream contract after years of a strong Gulfstream-Rolls-Royce partnership erased any lingering bad memories over the PW800’s long gestation. The first iterations of the engine for the new Gulfstreams are the G500’s PW814GA and G600’s PW815GA variants.

Sabaas proclaimed they will offer unparalleled efficiency, power and low noise. “Along with its demonstrated core technology, the PurePower PW800 engine is built with the same innovative design philosophy and outstanding dependability for which Pratt & Whitney engines are renowned,” he said.

Certification of the PW800 is expected soon as Gulfstream prepares to begin the G500’s flight test program early next year. Pratt & Whitney Canada has been testing the engine core since 2009 with program partners MTU Aero Engines, Avio Aero and ITP.

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