Pratt & Whitney Canada

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Pratt & Whitney Canada (PWC) is a Canadian aircraft engine manufacturer. PWC's headquarters are in Longueuil, Quebec, just outside Montreal. Like its larger American sibling, Pratt & Whitney (P&W), it is a business unit of United Technologies. United Technologies has given PWC a world mandate for smaller aircraft engines while P&W develops and manufactures the larger engines.

PWC is independent of P&W and has its own research, development and marketing as well as the manufacturing of its engines. Since the development of its famous PT6A engine in the 1960s, PWC has dominated its sector of the world market for aircraft engines.

[edit] History

P&WC was founded in 1928 to act as a service centre for P&W engines. During World War II, it assembled Pratt & Whitney Wasp engines built in the U.S. In 1952, the production of Wasp engines was transferred to P&WC so P&W could concentrate on developing jet engines.

In the late 1950s, a team of 12 P&WC engineers began the development of the first small turbine engine in Canada, the PT6A. The first example was delivered to a customer in 1963.