Richard Dussault VP Marketing at Pratt & Whitney Canada spent some time discussing the company’s substantial history in the making of turboprop engines. But as interesting as that is, its the vision of the future is special. PWC is well into the development of an engine of up to 8,000 SHP. Such an engine could power a turboprop airliner over 90 seats.
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This is a really interesting interview. One of the best I have heard here so far. Richard Dussault was frank, open and dynamic. A lot of new and pertinent information came out of this interview. My impression is that Mr Dussault could write an excellent follow-up to Kenneth H. Sullivan’s “Power: The Pratt & Whitney Canada Story”.
The turboprop market is doing surprisingly well right now and I am sure Embraer regrets having left it prematurely. Maybe they had lost faith in that market. I would say it was a bad call. Now we are left with another duopoly. Which still offers a high level of competition, but one that quickly finds a natural balance. Whereas with three players it is a lot more unpredictable. But the turboprop market is probably not big enough to support three players.
It’s funny how bigger as become synonymous with better. We now see this trend in both the turboprop business and jet aircraft. The CRJ200 was abandoned in favour of the CRJ700, CRJ 900 and CRJ1000. The Boeing 737 has grown spectacularly since its introduction in 1967. And I am sure the NSA, its potential successor, would be even larger yet. We have also seen the same trend in the automobile industry.