Pratt & Whitney recently received Federal Aviation Administration approval to add the PW1100G-JM engine that will power the Airbus A320neo aircraft to its production portfolio. The certificates were awarded to Pratt & Whitney's facilities in Middletown, Connecticut and West Palm Beach, Florida. Both facilities have expanded and modernized to introduce state-of-the-art assembly and test capability as the company prepares for its production increase. Pratt & Whitney is a division of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX).

"Receiving the FAA production certificates for the Middletown and West Palm Beach sites is an important milestone for Pratt & Whitney and for our employees across the company who contributed to the development of the revolutionary PurePower® engine family," said Danny Di Perna, senior vice president, Engineering & Operations, Pratt & Whitney. "Our engine centers will provide the capacity needed as we more than double production in the coming years. These sites use our innovative horizontal assembly line and higher-efficiency manufacturing techniques, enabling Pratt & Whitney to meet production ramp-up needs."

The PurePower engine family has more than 6,400 orders, including options. The certification of the Middletown and West Palm Beach Engine Centers to produce these engines for the A320neo ensures that with volume increasing, Pratt & Whitney will be ready to meet customer commitments as its new engines are brought into service.

As part of the process of certifying Pratt & Whitney to build the PW1100G-JM engines, the FAA conducted intense reviews of both facilities, capabilities, processes, tooling, quality assurance, test procedures and engine test results.

Pratt & Whitney is focused on perfect quality, and flawless, 100 percent on-time delivery across its product lines. The FAA closely reviewed quality assurance processes at the two facilities to confirm each could repeatedly and reliably assemble and test engines that are safe for flight in revenue service.

"The expectations of the FAA were met due to the extraordinary efforts of a cross-functional team of employees working tirelessly to ensure the Middletown and West Palm Beach facilities were integrated into both the required quality systems for building the PW1100G-JM engine," said Chris Flynn, vice president, Quality, Pratt & Whitney.

Pratt & Whitney's new West Palm Beach Engine Center officially opened in June 2014, and the company unveiled its modernized Middletown facility in February 2015. Both facilities feature world-leading technology and equipment, including military and commercial assembly lines. Each facility has a production line to assemble Pratt & Whitney's F135 military engine for the F-35 Lightning II. The West Palm Beach, Middletown and Mirabel (Quebec, Canada) Engine Centers use Pratt & Whitney's moving horizontal assembly line to assemble the PurePower family of engines. This line enables workers to easily move the engines up and down as well as rotate them during assembly, providing increased efficiency and ergonomic benefits.