Pratt & Whitney Canada Turbofans Celebrate Flying Hour Milestones

Since Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) certified its first business jet engine back in 1971 – a JT15D-1 engine for the Cessna Citation – the company has emerged as a world leader in business aviation. In the last 25 years alone, P&WC has certified 100 new engines, and more than a quarter have been for the business aviation market. As a testament to the performance and dependability of its people, engines, technologies and support, the company can now count close to 14,000 business aviation engines in service on 36 different aircraft models.

This year, several of P&WC’s turbofans are celebrating major flying hour milestones, underscoring the growing popularity and global reach of the company’s business aviation offering. The PW306C, in service on the Cessna Citation Sovereign since 2004, surpassed 2 million flying hours. A new version of the aircraft, the Sovereign+, powered by PW306D engines, recently received certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Overall, the PW300 family has accumulated more than 13 million flying hours, with 3,600 PW300 engines flying worldwide today.

Also reaching the 2 million flying hours mark this year is P&WC’s PW600 engine family. With a 900-to-3,000-lb thrust range, these engines are compact, lightweight, environmentally friendly and economical to operate. They have become the preferred engine for a new generation of light jets such as the Eclipse 550. The PW500 engine family, meanwhile, will shortly reach 12 million flying hours. The fractional aircraft market’s engine of choice, these engines in the 2,900-to 4,500-lb thrust class are recognized for their low fuel consumption, attractive operating economics and environmental friendliness. And finally, P&WC recently celebrated the 500th delivery of the PW535E engine for Embraer’s Phenom 300 light business jet, only five years after the start of production.