Asian Sky Quarterly 2022 Q4

DRAWING LINES IN THE SAND:
PRATT & WHITNEY CANADA’S
NEXT ONE BILLION HOURS
Although the first mention of the Geoglyphs of Nazca, more commonly known as the Nazca Lines, dates
back as far as 1553, it wasn’t until the early 20th century that pilots flying over the area in Peru saw them
and made the world aware of their existence.
Some of the geoglyphs that have been discovered are hard to
decipher, but some historians argue that others point to the pre-
Inca civilization that drew the geoglyphs telling us that people were
capable of building kites that could be flown, and, most importantly,
could take off and land. Historians also argue about the dates that
the lines were created, although it is likely they were drawn during
the Iron Age - roughly one billion hours ago.
Over the course of the following one billion hours man not only
perfected the design of flight, but also created powered flight and
then flew aircraft that could fly faster than the speed of sound.
Founded in 1928, the company has to date built more than
110,000 engines. They are fitted across various sectors, including
general aviation, business aviation, helicopters and commercial
aircraft. Its most popular engine, the PT6, recently celebrated its
60th anniversary.
The PT6 really is the foundation
of the company, it was our first
step into the gas turbine era,”
However you think about it, one billion hours is a very very long
time. So hitting a one-billion-hour milestone is therefore a major
event, especially in aviation. That one-billion-hour milestone was
recently celebrated by Pratt and Whitney Canada, who’s engines
have now surpassed the one billion flight hours mark.
says John Lewis, Pratt and Whitney Canada's Senior Director,
Customer Programs. “Prior to that we were making parts, but also
engines in the radial world, so the air-cooled radial world. But we
stepped out of that with the PT6, and I guess we haven’t looked back,
even though some of those engines are still in existence today.”
42 | GLOBAL SKY QUARTERLY — FOURTH QUARTER 2022