‘The GTF programme is continuing to attract new orders and is ramping up production deliveries, all the while supporting a growing in-service fleet. It’s the industry-disrupting technologies that set the GTF apart from its competition’
Pratt & Whitney’s association with India started over seven decades ago. Could you mention the latest addition to the list of products and services the company supplied to India?
Pratt & Whitney is part of United Technologies Corp., one of the world’s largest suppliers of aerospace products, with an established presence in India. Offering engine solutions for over seven decades now, Pratt & Whitney has played a significant role in India’s aviation growth story. The company’s product suite includes large commercial engines, military engines, small jet and turboprop engines, and other general, regional and civilian powered flight engines.
With 20 years of research and development, component rig testing on all major modules, extensive ground and flight testing underway, two engines in the family certified and the PW1100G-JM carrying passengers on a daily basis, the Pratt & Whitney’s Geared Turbofan engine delivers game-changing reductions in:
- Fuel burn
- Environmental emissions
- Engine noise
- Operating costs
With the company aggressively focusing on India, some of the latest additions to our services include:
- Customer Training Centre, Hyderabad – Received certification of its training centre by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation in April 2017 to provide DGCA CAR147-approved training to aircraft engineers and technicians from Pratt & Whitney’s airline customers in the region
- EngineWise service brand — Services designed to provide more predictive and responsive solutions to customers
- PW1100G the newly stationed Geared Turbofan engine at the training centre — designed to meet the aggressive emissions requirements and to run a higher level of cooling technology
- Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) signed a Fleet Management Programme (FMP) maintenance contract with IndiGo for PW127M to power the airline’s new fleet of ATR72-600 aircraft serving regional routes in India
The PW1100G-JM engine for Airbus A320neo family of aircraft and the PW1500G engine for the Bombardier C Series are certified and in passenger service with operators across the globe since January 2016 and is meeting promised performance targets around fuel efficiency, noise footprint reduction and lower NOx emissions. The PW1400G-JM engine for the Irkut MC-21 aircraft, the PW1200G engine for the Mitsubishi Regional Jet and the PW1900G for the Embraer E190-E2 are certified.
How is your customer training centre in Hyderabad doing? How do you see its future in India?
The response has been tremendous since its launch in September 2015. Post receiving certification from DGCA in April 2017 the training centre is now fully approved to offer DGCA-approved training sessions on V2500-A5 engines. It is also expected to offer courses on PW1100G-JM and other models from the Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbofan (GTF) family of engines soon. This Pratt & Whitney training centre, established to address the shortage of a skilled work force in India’s aviation industry, is only the third such Pratt & Whitney facility in the world. We have already provided more than 2000 student days training and are working closely with a number of universities and state governments to establish a robust aviation skill development platform in the country.
The government of India is actively promoting the ‘Make in India’ programme. How do you view the initiative? How is Pratt & Whitney cooperating with it?
Pratt & Whitney recognises the country’s world-class engineering and technical capabilities as well as market opportunities it offers. As a company that is deeply embedded in India, we firmly support the ‘Make in India’ campaign that translates the government’s vision of making India a global manufacturing hub. India is one of the most important strategic markets for Pratt & Whitney and we continue to build on our long-standing partnership with the country.
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