Pratt & Whitney’s Geared Turbofan™ Engine Powers Bombardier C Series on the Inaugural Flight with SWISS into London City Airport
Click here for photos from the event.
EAST HARTFORD, Conn. (Aug. 9, 2017) – Pratt & Whitney’s PurePower® Geared Turbofan (GTF) engine powered the first SWISS flight into London City Airport with a Bombardier C Series aircraft. Pratt & Whitney is a division of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX).
“We congratulate SWISS and Bombardier on their inaugural flight into London City Airport,” said Chris Calio, president, Pratt & Whitney Commercial Engines. “Service to this airport demands an innovative engine: one with steep approach and high rate-of-climb capabilities – while also maintaining a low noise profile. The GTF is delivering all of these.”
The GTF engine is currently powering 16 C Series aircraft in passenger service with an overall engine reliability better than 99.9 percent. The engine’s architecture, enabled by the fan drive gear system, is transforming commercial aviation with a 16 percent reduction in fuel consumption while reducing regulated emissions by 50 percent and slashing the noise footprint by 75 percent.
In 2007, Bombardier became the second of five aircraft manufacturers to select Pratt & Whitney’s GTF engine for its new C Series aircraft contributing directly to continued U.S. leadership in technology-led manufacturing, U.S. exports, and growing U.S. jobs and investment. The GTF engine family has received more than 8,000 orders, including options.
Pratt & Whitney is investing $1.3 billion in upgrading and updating its manufacturing and service centers to meet the demands of the new program, including a $400+ million expansion of the company’s two Connecticut facilities, $451 million expansion of its Columbus, GA, facility, and opening a new facility in Lansing, MI, to produce fan blades. Pratt & Whitney expects to hire 25,000 people by 2026, helping to ensure that production targets and maintenance standards are met, and will continue to invest in both facilities and supply chain.
Of the company’s $770 million in supply chain spend to support the GTF engine program in 2016, 78 percent, or $600 million, was spent in the United States, supporting local economies and creating jobs.
Pratt & Whitney is a world leader in the design, manufacture and service of aircraft engines and auxiliary power units. United Technologies Corp., based in Farmington, Connecticut, provides high-technology systems and services to the building and aerospace industries. To learn more about UTC, visit its website at www.utc.com, or follow the company on Twitter: @UTC.
This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning future investments and business opportunities. Actual results may differ materially from those projected as a result of certain risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to the effect of economic conditions for the industries and markets in which we operate, including changes in levels of demand in the aerospace industry, in levels of air travel, and in the number of aircraft to be built; challenges in the design, development, production, support, performance and realization of the anticipated benefits of advanced technologies; as well as other risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to those detailed from time to time in United Technologies Corp.’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
For more information about Pratt & Whitney, visit www.pw.utc.com
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