Pratt & Whitney has inked a memorandum of understanding with Comac to cooperate on leadership training for senior executives and mid-level management at the Chinese airframer, as well as project management training.
The agreement, signed by P&W on behalf of parent United Technologies Corp (UTC), comes at a time when the engine manufacturer is in the midst of discussions with Comac to offer the PW1000G as a second Western engine option on the 156-seat C919, as well as other powerplants for the 70-seat ARJ21 and new clean-sheet designs.
Training programmes covered in the agreement will be conducted at P&W's Customer Training Center in East Hartford, Connecticut in collaboration with sisters Hamilton Sundstrand and Sikorsky. They will provide targeted curriculum for senior executives, mid-level managers and high potential employees, says P&W.
Training, including Achieving Competitive Excellence (ACE) courses, is scheduled to begin mid-year.
"We signed this training cooperation MOU with UTC because it offers opportunities for employees at all levels of Comac to learn critical leadership and technical skills from a trusted and well-respected OEM," says Comac assistant president and general manager, human resources Yan Hua. "Comac plans to leverage the training to develop its world-class workforce."
P&W chief executive David Hess recently said the initial selection of the CFM Leap-X1C engine for the C919 has not ruled out the PW1000G: "Certainly their initial selection was Leap-X, they'll start a flight-test programme with Leap-X, but they seem to be very interested in flying the next-generation product family."
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
