The Engine Alliance, a company composed of both Pratt & Whitney and General Electric (GE), received Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) airworthiness certification from the Federal Aviation Administration on December 29, 2005 for their GP7200 engine, the market leading powerplant for the Airbus A380.
 
“We put the GP7200 through as tough a test regime as any engine has ever faced,” said Bob Saia, Executive Vice President, Engine Alliance & Vice President, GP7000 Programs for Pratt & Whitney. “Even though the engine will be used on the four-engine A380, we tested and certified it to the same standards required for large twin-engine aircraft in ETOPS (Extended-Range Twin Engine Operations).  This has been an outstanding team effort by the Engine Alliance, its parent companies GE and Pratt & Whitney, and its partners, MTU, Snecma and TechSpace Aero. Now we are ready to get on with flight-testing and certification on the A380.”
 
The FAR 33 certification follows an extensive ground and flight-test program that involved eight engines over 21 months. During its development and certification program more than 25 certification tests and more than 50 component tests were run.  The engine also powered two flight-test programs on a flying test bed. 
 
The Alliance delivered four flight-test engines to Airbus in September that will soon be installed on an A380 flight-test aircraft. First flight will take place in 2006 with entry into service at Emirates in 2007. The GP7200 is derived from two successful engines, the GE90 and the PW4000, incorporating all the lessons learned from millions of flight hours and benefiting from the two programs’ latest, proven technologies.