Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with&nbsp;New Jersey Monthly&nbsp;magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.

Senior Editor

Gregory Polek

Pratt &amp; Whitney signed a definitive agreement with Russia’s Irkut on Tuesday&nbsp;to supply the PurePower PW1400G turbofan for Irkut’s planned MC-21 narrowbodies. The contract secures the PurePower engine—formerly known as the Geared Turbofan—as the only Western powerplant offered on the 150- to 210-seat series of jets. Pratt &amp; Whitney and Irkut have chosen Belfast-based Bombardier subsidiary Short Brothers to serve as the exclusive nacelle provider for the PW1400G engine family.


Plans call for the MC-21 to fly for the first time in 2015 and enter service in 2017. Its engines will need to generate between 25,000 and 32,000 pounds of thrust.


Also chosen to power the Bombardier C Series, Mitsubishi MRJ and Airbus A320neo, the PurePower series has logged 2,900 hours of full engine testing and nearly 9,000 cycles.


The PW1217G—the engine chosen to power the Mitsubishi MRJ—began flight testing aboard one of Pratt &amp; Whitney’s Boeing 747SP test beds on April 30 and has so far logged some 50 hours in the air and more than 1,400 hours of total run time.


Meanwhile, fourth and fifth PW1524Gs built for the C Series program flew nearly 250 hours aboard a 747SP test bed, and that variant of the engine has run more than 1,400 hours total. Pratt &amp; Whitney plans to start ground tests of the sixth PW1524G this month and finish the model’s flight trials with a third round of tests in mid-summer.

Pratt & Whitney, Irkut Seal PW1400G Deal for MC-21

Pratt & Whitney has signed a definitive deal to supply PW1400 to Irkut.

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