The first raw materials for Pratt & Whitney Canada’s new regional turboprop demonstrator have begun to arrive at the company’s Longueuil plant in Quebec as technicians prepare to assemble the compression system for the NGRT (next-generation regional turboprop). In an interview with AIN ahead of this week’s Paris Air Show, PWC vice president of marketing Richard Dussault revealed that the company has completed the design architecture and launched the demonstrator program, scheduled to culminate with a finished product some time next year.
“We’ve released the drawings and are in the process of machining the first components,” said Dussault, who noted that the company would initially test the parts individually this summer as part of a schedule that calls for running of the compressor system by the end of this year or early next year. “We now believe that we have all the ingredients to bring an engine to market that will be successful as the PW100 has been and as the PW150 is,” said Dussault.
