Pratt & Whitney F117 Engines Surpass 10 Million Flight Hours On C-17 Fleet

EAST HARTFORD, Conn., Feb. 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Pratt & Whitney's F117 engine, the exclusive power for the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III airlifter, recently exceeded 10 million engine flight hours. At the same time, the C-17 exceeded 2.5 million flight hours while supporting military and humanitarian mission in support of U.S. and allied troops around the globe. Pratt & Whitney is a United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) company.

"This milestone is a testament to the reliability of the F117 engine," said Bev Deachin, vice president, Military Programs and Customer Support, Pratt & Whitney.  "The exceptional performance of our engines – in some of the harshest conditions – has helped the C-17 Globemaster III save countless lives in military, humanitarian and disaster relief missions around the world."

Since 2006, Pratt & Whitney's F117 engines have accumulated more than six million flight hours in support of worldwide air mobility missions. To put this in perspective, it took 13 years of operational service for the engine to reach its first four million flight-hour milestone. This statistic reflects the C-17's increased workload over the past several years.

At the same time that the F117 has achieved 10 million flight hours, the company is also celebrating with Boeing 15 years of successful partnership on the performance-based logistics contract for the C-17.

"Through Pratt & Whitney's ongoing investment in product improvements and industry partnerships the engine continuously surpasses established goals of time on-wing and support turnaround time," said Deachin. "The F117 engine can remain on-wing for up to eight years between servicing visits, which lowers maintenance costs and provides outstanding mission readiness for C-17 customers."

The C-17 Globemaster III – the world's premier heavy airlifter – is operated by four F117 engines, each rated at 40,440 pounds of thrust, enabling the C-17 transport to carry a payload of 164,900 pounds and fly 2,400 nautical miles without refueling. 

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