P&WC Celebrates 40 Years of Powering the Cessna Caravan With the Proven PT6A Engine

Pratt & Whitney Canada is celebrating 40 years of powering Textron Aviation’s Cessna Caravan with its PT6A turboprop engine. Since its first delivery in 1985, every Caravan aircraft delivered – over 3,100 globally – has been powered by the PT6A engine. The Cessna Caravan platform, including the Cessna Grand Caravan EX has accumulated more than 25 million flying hours, enabling missions across 100 countries and demonstrating exceptional reliability in business, cargo, passenger, humanitarian and special mission operations. Pratt & Whitney is an RTX (NYSE: RTX) business.

“For four decades, the PT6A engine and the Cessna Caravan has transformed how people and goods move around the world and redefined what’s possible in remote, rugged and hard-to-reach environments,” said Anthony Rossi, vice president Customer service, Pratt & Whitney Canada. “ The Caravan’s success is a testament to the PT6A’s performance, versatility and reliability, powering critical missions that connect communities, support critical operations and inspire adventure across the globe.”

The Cessna Caravan operates in remote areas with extreme weather conditions, water runways, mountainous terrain and rough landing locations. Its versatility is enabled by the PT6A’s ability to perform in high-cycle, high-power environments. Today’s PT6A has four-times the power output and a 50% improved power-to-weight ratio when compared to the original. The PT6A also has as much as 20% better specific fuel consumption compared to early models of the engine.