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.
