International alliance to produce engines for regional plane

On June 20, The Pratt & Whitney corporation (P&W) presented a new project of an engine for the Russian Regional Jet Plane in Moscow. The plane called RRJ, is only a project, too. The agreement for its joint development was signed by the Ilyushin and Sukhoi aircraft producers and the American Boeing corporation in 2000.

According to Joseph Torchetti, the P&W vice president for international business development, the company is going to win the upcoming tender for supplying a power unit for RRJ. The PW-800 engine, which is under development, is to be created with wide international cooperation. P&W, which has been working on this engine for two years already, wants to attract to its activities the Aviadvigatel design office (the Perm City) and the German MTU Aero Engines company, a DaimlerChrysler affiliate. As Torchetti said, by 2004 the engine is to be ready for certification; in 2006, mass production is to begin. He stressed that at least 50 percent of PW-800 spare parts will be produced in Russia.

Deputy general director of Aviadvigatel Alexander Semyonov stressed that it would be the first experience of equal participation in an international development of a modern engine for his company. MTU Aero Engines vice president for marketing and sales Johim Hildermann stated that his company would like to increase its participation in the project to 40 percent. If P&W preserves its share at about 50 percent, engineers from Perm will have a very small share. However, negotiations regarding the distribution of participation in the project are far from completion, the Vremya Novostey newspaper reported.

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