Pratt & Whitney's favoured route to a next-generation 150-seat-class narrowbody engine offering is as part of the International Aero Engines consortium with a proposal based on a geared turbofan (GTF) architecture.
The GTF was selected last year to power the smaller, yet-to-be-launched Mitsubishi Regional Jet and Bombardier CSeries aircraft.
"It's our plan that we go to market through IAE," says P&W senior vice-president marketing and sales Bob Keady. "Our job is to develop our technology and then bring it to IAE. We're in dialogue right now but nobody knows when the Boeing and Airbus aircraft are going to come along."
P&W is a partner in IAE alongside Rolls-Royce, MTU Aero Engines and Japanese Aero Engines.
Keady says that at its planned service-entry date of 2013 the GTF will offer a specific fuel consumption 12% below that of the existing IAE V2500, and that this could be improved by several additional percentage points prior to the expected introduction of next-generation Airbus and Boeing narrowbodies from 2017.
R-R says it is studying a range of options to power next-generation narrowbodies, including an advanced two-shaft engine and a "baby Trent" three-shaft design.
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Source: FlightGlobal.com
