Precursors Wind tunnel tests were conducted at the
NASA Glenn Research Center in the late 1980s using Pratt & Whitney’s 17-inch diameter ducted fan model. In summer 1993, Pratt & Whitney started to test its Advanced Ducted Propulsor (ADP) demonstrator at the
NASA Ames Wind Tunnel, using a 4:1, gearbox. Testing of the CSeries bound PW1524G model began in October 2010. In addition to the geared turbofan, the initial designs included a variable-area fan nozzle (VAFN), which allows improvements in propulsive efficiency across a range of the flight envelope. However, the VAFN has since been dropped from production designs due to high system weight. The PW1500G engine achieved Transport Canada type certification on February 20, 2013. The first flight test on one of its intended production airframes, the
Bombardier CSeries (Airbus A220), was on September 16, 2013. The A320 engine, the PW1100G, had made its first static engine test run on November 1, 2012, and was first tested on the 747SP on May 15, 2013. The first flight of the
Airbus A320neo followed on September 25, 2014. The PW1100G engine achieved FAA type certification on December 19, 2014. The fourth variant of the engine, the PW1900G for the
Embraer E2, first flew on November 3, 2015 from
Mirabel in Canada fitted to the Boeing 747SP test aircraft.
Production with cowlings open The program cost is estimated at $10 billion. The list price was $ million in 2011. At the start of production in 2016, each GTF was costing PW $10m to build, more than the sale price, but was expected eventually to fall below $2 million per engine. MTU provides the first four stages of the high-pressure compressor, the low-pressure turbine and other components. In October 2016, MTU started to deliver the engine assembled on its line to Airbus. In November 2016, Pratt had fixed the engine-start problem and aimed to deliver 150 powerplants by year's end, 50 fewer than planned. This was because less than one-third of fan blades were passing inspection at the start of the year, a figure that rose to 75% as the year went on. Fuel-burn performance was 16% better than the IAE V2500 baseline, on target, and even 18% better in best cases. The 2017 delivery goal was set at 350 to 400 engines. The troubled introduction led customers to choose the
CFM LEAP, which won 396 A320neo orders compared to 39 for the GTF from January through early August 2017: 46% of the GTF-powered A320neos were out of service for at least one week in July 2017 compared with just 9% of those using the LEAP. The GTF's market share fell from 45% to 40% in 2016, but 1,523 planes (%) were still undecided, and as of August 2017 Pratt had an 8,000-engine orderbook including 1,000 non-Airbus planes. On 24 October 2017, a 99.8% dispatch reliability was attained and Pratt remained on track to deliver 350 to 400 engines in 2017, as 254 have been delivered including 120 in the third quarter, but 12–15% were diverted for spares as the carbon air seal and combustor liners were wearing out quickly, requiring engine removals to change the part. P&W expects to deliver over 2,500 GTFs from 2018 to 2020, more than 10,000 engines by 2025. The first engine was completed by November 2019.
Ultra high-bypass version In 2010, Pratt & Whitney launched the development of an ultra high-bypass version, with a ratio higher than the PW1100G's 12.2:1 for the A320neo, to offer 20% better fuel consumption than a
CFM56-7 and 25 dB less noise than the FAA's Stage 4.