Pratt & Whitney

Blackhawk Aerospace says it is developing an supplemental type certificate (STC) for the Pilatus PC-12, replacing the PT6A turboprop engine with a new, more powerful model. The single engine turboprop conversion builds on Blackhawk’s success with Cessna’s Caravan series of aircraft. The news was announced at a press conference at the National Business Aviation Association’s […]

Chances are, if you fly turboprop-powered aircraft, you have some time behind the Pratt & Whitney PT6 series engines. My own introduction to the legendary engine came when I first flew the Cessna Grand Caravan—and the marriage of the 182-like handling with the performance and reliability of the PT6A-114A (in that case) made the airplane […]

Pratt & Whitney is reportedly investigating cases of excessive engine vibration in its new geared turbofan engines that power Airbus’s A320neo. Pilots have received alerts of high vibration levels in flight and the FAA is currently studying the problem. Pratt & Whitney, a part of United Technologies Corp., has not yet identified the cause of […]

For all the talk about lingering economic uncertainty and struggling aircraft market segments, it’s hard to think back to a more fascinating time for the business aviation industry. From emerging models like the Cessna Denali turboprop and Cirrus Vision Jet to larger airplanes, including the HondaJet, Pilatus PC-24, Citation Hemisphere, Bombardier Global 8000 and Dassault […]

The crisp Michigan air afforded a visibility of at least 30 or 40 miles as we approached Mackinac Island (KMCD) in Ken Ross’ Eclipse 550, N140NE. The airplane sported a jazzy black-and-gold paint job that already had me thinking the flight would be different from the one I’d taken in the original Eclipse nearly eight […]

Last week, the four-seat Stratos 714 jet took to the skies for the first time from the company’s headquarters at the Roberts Field Airport in Redmond, Oregon. The plan for the flight, which lasted only 10 minutes, was to evaluate the general stability and systems operation of the single-engine jet. Test pilot Dave Morss was […]

Turboprop engine-upgrade company Blackhawk Modifications this week announced progress toward a supplemental type certificate (STC) that will boost performance in the workhorse Beechcraft King Air 350. The Waco, Texas-based company recently submitted a flight test plan to the FAA for the engine upgrade that will replace the original Pratt & Whitney 1,050 shp PT6A-60A engines […]

They say that when one door closes, another opens. The trick is to stop looking at the closed door long enough to see which door is ajar. For Piper, the closed door was the abortive Altaire single-engine jet, an airplane many likened to a mini DC-10 with its Williams turbofan engine integrated weirdly into the […]

Piper Aircraft delivered the first M600 single-engine turboprop yesterday, handing over the keys to the airplane to its new owners a day after Flying had a chance to put the model through its paces, which was closely followed by the FAA’s final validation flight before signing off on the production certificate. The first M600, painted […]

Piper’s M600 single-engine turboprop achieved FAA type certification last week, adding a new model to the Vero Beach, Florida, manufacturer’s lineup that features more power and improved avionics. The $2.853 million M600 features the same Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6-42A engine as the Piper M500, but power has been boosted from 500 to 600 shp, […]