PW4000 Advantage70 Engine to Start Certification Test Program
The first PW4000-100 Advantage70(TM) development engine will soon leave Pratt & Whitney’s Middletown, Conn., engine center to begin ground testing at the company’s East Hartford test facility. The engine, providing 70,000 pounds of thrust for the Airbus A330, will start a series of development tests leading to planned Federal Aviation Administration engine certification in August 2008. Initial development flight testing will begin in the first quarter of 2008 on Pratt & Whitney’s 747 flying test bed aircraft, followed by additional flight testing on an A330-200 in 2009.
The Advantage70 engine is scheduled to enter service in 2009 on A330-200 freighters operated by Flyington Freighters, a cargo carrier based in Hyderabad, India. In addition to Flyington, recent customers for the PW4000-100 engine include Air Caraibes, Grupo Marsans, Kingfisher Airlines and TAM Linhas Aereas. Operators of A330 aircraft powered by PW4000-100 engines, which entered service in 1994, will be able to incorporate the Advantage technology upgrade into their engines to realize the package’s thrust, fuel efficiency and maintenance cost improvements.