For Lancair International, the future is PT6-powered

For Pratt & Whitney Canada, the Experimental Aircraft Association's (EAA) AirVenture, powering up in Oshkosh, WI, July 29 through August 4, is among the highlights of the calendar year. The company has been attending the Oshkosh, Wisconsin, event for more than a decade; this year it provides an especially ideal venue to showcase the iconic PT6 engine, celebrating its 50th anniversary.

For both P&WC and the aviation community at large, it's an occasion to look back on fifty years of turboprop innovation. Meanwhile, at Lancair International, it's an occasion to look forward.

The Oregon-based kit aircraft manufacturer signed a 5-year contract with P&WC, covering the sale of new PT6A-135A engines for installation on their Evolution aircraft.

P&WC's relationship with Lancair goes back more than 5 years, when the Evolution first took to the skies. “Lancair's goal in developing the Evolution was to provide pilots with a similar level of confidence in a kit aircraft as a certified production aircraft,” said Thomas Bowen, Chief Operating Officer at Lancair. “We looked to the PT6A engine as the basis for creating that confidence given its industry-leading reliability.”

Lancair is a leader in the experimental aircraft market, making EAA AirVenture a fitting venue to mark this agreement. With the Evolution, the company has also pioneered the owner builder-assembled “digital kit”, making this contract a testament to not only the PT6 engine's dependability, but also its continued presence at the fore of innovation.

"Our goal with the PT6 has always been to provide operators with unmatched dependability, dispatch reliability and ease of maintenance,” said Denis Parisien, Vice President, General Aviation at P&WC. “The engine is so successful because we've never wavered from that vision, and this is in large part due to the fact that we've consistently invested in new technology over the course of its history. This agreement with Lancair shows that it drives us today just as it did 50 years ago."