Pratt & Whitney has announced that its PW4062 engines are the powerplants of choice for Boeing’s NewGen Tanker design. Boeing disclosed March 4 that it would offer the 767-based NewGen Tanker to the Air Force in the KC-X tanker competition. Two PW4062 engines, each delivering 62,000 pounds of thrust, would power each NewGen Tanker. The PW4062 is the highest thrust model in Pratt’s PW4000-94-inch commercial engine family. Already the company says it has delivered more than 2,500 PW4000-94-inch engines for commercial aircraft, including 767s. These engines have collectively have logged more than 100 million flight miles. “The PW4000 engine has an exceptional track record of performance and reliability,” said Bill Begert, the company’s vice president of military business development and aftermarket services. He said Pratt is confident that the PW4062s would meet the performance requirements and expectations of Boeing and the Air Force.
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.