Connecticut Post reports that the B-21 “is the Air Force’s first new bomber since the 1989 debut of the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, with both using a ‘flying wing’ design to reduce the odds of showing up on radar, which uses four engines from GE Aviation.” The Air Force “has yet to specify how many engines will power the B-21.” Military trade publications “have cited analyst speculation that the B-21 engine may be a variant of the F135 engine Pratt & Whitney makes for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighter jet.” Pratt & Whitney recently “completed its 1,000th engine under the F135 program.” Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes said, “The F135 … is the safest, most capable and best-value, military jet engine in operation. We’re working on the F135 engine core upgrade. … This will allow the F135 to provide even more thrust, range and electrification to the aircraft.”
Full Story (Connecticut Post)
Tag: Pratt u0026 Whitney
Air Corsica Finds Pratt & Whitney Canada Engine Reduces MRO Costs by a Third
Aviation Week reports that maintenance costs “are reduced by almost one-third on the ATR 72-600 regional turboprop thanks to the latest iteration of its Pratt & Whitney Canada engine, the PW127XT, a senior executive at Air Corsica says.” The carrier is “the launch customer for the PW127XT-powered version of the ATR 72-600.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
Pratt & Whitney Projects Peak Number of Grounded Aircraft to be Lower Than Previously Thought
FlightGlobal reports that Pratt & Whitney “expects the peak number of aircraft grounded as a result of manufacturing problems with geared turbofan engines will be lower than previously anticipated as the propulsion specialist continues to work through the issue.” In September, the engine maker “expanded a previously announced requirement for ‘accelerated inspections’ of the PW1100G engines that power Airbus A320neo-family jets due to a manufacturing problem.” Caused by contamination “of the powder metal material used to make high-pressure turbine and compressor disks, the issue will see thousands of aircraft taken out of service over the next two years for checks.” But “speaking to analysts on a full-year earnings call on 23 January, Christopher Calio, chief operating officer of P&W parent RTX, said although the recovery process was in its early stages, progress is being made.”
Full Story (FlightGlobal)
Hermeus Begins Testing of Precooler Technology on Pratt & Whitney F100
Aviation International News reports, “Hermeus continues its march toward hypersonic development with the testing of its precooler technology on the Pratt & Whitney F100. The precooler lowers the temperature of incoming air, enabling an increase in the maximum speed of the turbine engine.”
Full Story (Aviation International News)
JetBlue Predicts Pratt & Whitney Engine Issues to Ground Aircraft through Next Year
FlightGlobal reports that JetBlue Airways “expects six of its Airbus A321neos to be grounded by Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engine problems by year-end – and for that number to rise in 2024.” JetBlue CFO Ursula Hurley said, “We’ll end next year with a high single-digits, low double-digits number of aircraft on the ground.” During its October 31 quarterly earnings call, the carrier “described how it stands to be affected by P&W’s recall of PW1100G geared turbofan (GTF) engines due to disk problems, which has caused broad fleet disruptions among A320 operators.” JetBlue currently “has 25 A321neos in service and four in storage, according to Cirium fleets data.” The majority of GTF engines “on JetBlue’s aircraft were manufactured post-2021, meaning that they were made outside of the production run of engines that currently need inspection.”
Full Story (FlightGlobal)
Pratt & Whitney-Powered A320neo Groundings Start as FAA-Required Inspections Begin
Aviation Week reports that groundings of Pratt & Whitney-powered Airbus A320neos “are climbing fast as operators remove engines for accelerated inspections recommended by the manufacturer and mandated by regulators.” The percentage of the PW1100G-powered Airbus fleet “on the ground stood at 19% at the end of September, or 267 aircraft out of 1,378 in the global fleet, an Aviation Week analysis shows.” The figure “is a 6% jump compared to August 31’s figure of 175 aircraft out of 1,358, the data show.” Mandates issued “by the FAA and European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) gave affected operators until late September to remove the first batch of engines flagged for inspections.” The initial batch “consisted of about 140 engines, Pratt said when it unveiled its fleet management plan to address potential cracks in certain high-pressure turbine disks and high-pressure compressor integrally bladed rotors (IBR).
Full Story (Aviation Week)
Wizz Air May Reduce Capacity as Much as 10% from Pratt & Whitney Engine Issues
Aviation Week reports that Wizz Air “may need to reduce its capacity by 10% due to Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan (GTF) engine issues and increased engine removals.” The Hungary-based ULCC “has also begun to exchange several Airbus A321neos from its UAE joint venture Wizz Air Abu Dhabi with A321ceos.”
Full Story (Aviation Week – Subscription publication)
P&W Awarded $5.2B to Support Production of 15th, 16th Lots of F135 Engines
Reuters reports that Pratt & Whitney “said on Monday it has been awarded a $5.2 billion contract to support production of the 15th and 16th lots of F135 engines, with an option to award a 17th lot, powering all three variants of the F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft.” P&W said that the “total contract value for lots 15-17, with exercised options, is about $8 billion and will fund over 418 F135 engines.” According to Reuters, the “contract funds production of 278 F135 engines with an option to order up to 518 engines. It also includes program management, engineering support, production support and tooling.”
Full Story (Reuters)
Pratt & Whitney Moves Ahead on F-35 ECU Program
Aviation Week reports that Pratt & Whitney now “has 400 engineers working on a major upgrade for the F135 engine that powers the Lockheed Martin F-35, as the company waits for congressional approval of the formal program go-ahead in fiscal 2024.” The team assigned “to the Engine Core Upgrade (ECU) program has been funded with previous congressional add-ons to the fiscal 2023 budget that now total $180 million in awarded contracts, including a $66 million award announced on July 11, says Jill Albertelli, president of Pratt’s military engines business.” The awards are funding work “on early architecture studies and engineering preparation for the preliminary design review, Albertelli said.” Both efforts have been “launched as Congress considers the Pentagon’s request to launch full development of the ECU program in fiscal 2024.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
Pratt & Whitney Cleared to Resume F-135 Engine Deliveries
Reuters reported that Raytheon Technologies Corp. said Friday that the US government has “cleared its Pratt and Whitney unit to resume deliveries of its F-135 engine for the F-35 fighter jet, after a halt was put in place in December following the discovery of a safety concern.” In a statement, the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) said that its “engineers worked alongside Pratt & Whitney and Lockheed Martin to develop ‘mitigations for a rare system phenomenon involving harmonic resonance to develop a path forward for safe operation of the F135 in flight.’” The JPO added that the “actions the government and industry team are taking will ensure incorporation of mitigation measures that will fully address/resolve this rare phenomenon in impacted F135 engines.” The JPO also said that the “government was working on drawing up instructions for safely resuming flight operations for impacted and new production aircraft.”
Full Story (Reuters)