Powering Tech Training
The requests come in from as far away as Guadeloupe and as near as École des métiers de l’aérospatiale de Montréal, located near P&WC’s head office in Longueuil, Quebec. Educational institutions around the world ask for donations of engines and parts to be used to help train gas turbine engine technicians. “Over the years, we have fulfilled requests for numerous engines to be donated to certified schools that are training the next generation of engine technicians,” says Isabelle Gagné, Team Lead, Communication Services, P&WC.
Trained and certified engine mechanics are in constant demand. By donating engines to educational institutions, P&WC helps ensure that mechanics-in-training get to work on the “real deal”: authentic P&WC engines that offer direct, hands-on experience.
In the past several years, Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) has received a number of engines from P&WC, including the PT6A-41, PT6A-27 and PT6A-34 engines. NSCC has campuses across the province and provides aircraft-engine maintenance courses through its Aviation Institute, in Dartmouth. The institute’s programs are approved by Transport Canada and accredited by the Canadian Aviation Maintenance Council.
“The donation of engines and components from Pratt & Whitey Canada has been absolutely critical to the program,” says Peter Bing, Academic Chair, NSCC Aviation Institute. “We started our two-year Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (Mechanical) program eight years ago with just one engine. We now have one engine for every two students, and we have hundreds of graduates working in aviation across Canada.”
“In 2012, P&WC made what is probably its largest donation to the aviation industry when it gave its retired Boeing 720 flying test bed (FTB) to the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, located in Ottawa, Ontario,” says Gagné. “It was the last Boeing 720 still flying, and, over the years, it played a key role in flight testing new generations of PT6 engines, among others. Through P&WC’s donation, we were able to ensure that the remarkable Boeing 720 FTB will be on permanent display for future generations of aviation enthusiasts.”