The in-development geared turbofan (GTF) has been attracting most of the headlines at engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney lately, and it does indeed promise to make a large leap in powerplant efficiency and environmental friendliness when it enters airline service in 2013. The GTF achieves its gains in large part from the integral gearbox that allows both the fan up front and the core farther downstream to turn at their optimum speeds– slower in the case of the larger-than-usual fan and faster for the compressor and power turbine.
The configuration is not especially well suited to propelling a business jet (it falls short on high-altitude thrust), but business aviation will reap some of the benefits of the program: the PW810 that was destined to power the now languishing Cessna Citation Columbus has the same core (including Pratt & Whitney’s Talon combustor technology for low oxides of nitrogen) as the PW1000G GTF chosen by Bombardier and Mitsubishi to power, respectively, their C Series and MRJ airliners. P&W uses the same program name, PurePower, for both engines.
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