Bombardier Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney announced today that Pratt & Whitney has successfully achieved Transport Canada type certification of its first PurePower Geared Turbofan™ engine – the PW1500G engine that will power Bombardier’s CSeries aircraft.
Pratt & Whitney has conducted over 4,000 hours of rigorous engine testing since the initial engine began testing in September 2010. The PW1500G engine test program included 340 hours of flight testing on P&W’s experimental 747 Flight Test airplane.
“Certification of the PW1500G engine is a significant milestone and a critical step in supporting the progressive transfer of the first CSeries flight test vehicle to the flight test program,” said Rob Dewar, vice president and general manager, CSeries, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft. “We are very pleased with the engine’s performance and the overall, steady progress of the CSeries aircraft program. We have met a number of key milestones over the last few months, accepted the first pair of PW1500G propulsion systems and are in the process of completing final assembly of the first CSeries flight test aircraft.”
This is a major milestone for both programs. One expects that Bombardier is getting closer to first flight but they may hushed about that for now.
