GROWING ORDERS
From engines for very light jets to jumbo jets, engines for land-based industrial gas turbines to space shuttle and rocket engines, engines for fifth-generation fighters to the new Purepower engine family for the next generation of commercial aircraft; Pr
PVERSATILE CAPABILITY.
RATT & WHITNEY COMMERCIAL
engines have logged over one billion flight hours on both narrow and wide-body passengers and cargo aircraft. And despite the green initiatives of other engine makers and their burgeoning order books, the original equipment manufacturer still has the largest orders for engines and the greatest market share with its PurePower Geared Turbofan engine swaying the global market. Although the United Technologies Company (UTC) second quarter 2012 report made public recently states that foreign currency translation and hedges at Pratt & Whitney Canada, had an adverse impact of $0.05 and that orders for spares were down by 15 per cent at Pratt & Whitney’s large engine business and 10 per cent at Hamilton Sundstrand, the overwhelming orders at the recently concluded Farnborough Air Show 2012 speaks a different story.
At the show, Pratt & Whitney bagged an order from Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation and SkyWest, Inc for 200 PurePower PW1200G engines to power 100 Mitsubishi Regional Jets. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2017.
UTC also signed a definitive agreement with IndiGo for PurePower PW1100G-JM engines for 150 Airbus A320neo family of aircraft with deliveries scheduled to begin in 2015. The agreement includes 300 firm PurePower PW1100G-JM engines with additional options and a long-term PureSolutionSM maintenance agreement. The PurePower PW1100G-JM engines will provide benefits of double-digit reductions in fuel burn, as also reduced environmental emissions, engine noise and operating costs.
“The order represents one of the largest engine orders in our history,” said Todd Kallman, President, Commercial Engines & Global Services, Pratt & Whitney.
This was not all. Pratt & Whitney and JetBlue Airways also finalised an order for PurePower PW1100G-JM engines to power its 40 A320neo family aircraft concluding the MoU announced late 2011. With deliveries commencing in 2018, the agreement includes 86 PurePower engines with a long-term PureSolutionSM maintenance service agreement. CIT Group Inc and Pratt & Whitney also finalised an agreement for 60 PurePower PW1100G engines for CIT’s order of Airbus A320neo family aircraft with deliveries starting in 2016.
From engines for very light jets to jumbo jets, engines for land-based industrial gas turbines to space shuttle and rocket engines, engines for fifth-generation fighters to the new PurePower engine family for the next generation of commercial aircraft; Pratt & Whitney is the only provider of engines, parts and services. With about 16,000 large commercial engines already installed globally, Pratt & Whitney has powered thousands of airplanes across the world.
Recently, the company achieved a major milestone as the A380 aircraft powered by GP7200 engines completed more than one million flight hours. The GP7200 engine entered service in August 2008 and 34 GP7200-powered A380s are now in service with Emirates, Air France and Korean Air. Other GP7200 cus- tomers include Air Austral, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways. Till date, Engine Alliance GP7200 engines have been selected to power 56 per cent of all A380s.
NEXT-GEN.
Single-aisle jet market generates more revenue from maintenance and retrofitting services and hence it is likely that there will be more demand for these in the coming years. Pratt & Whitney is aiming for a bigger pie of this market with its geared turbofan engine, while its competitors are also not far behind, all promising improvement in fuel burn, environment emissions and operating costs.
According to the company, till date, Pratt & Whitney have got orders for 2,800 PurePower engines in varied options. The PurePower engine family uses an advanced gear system allowing the engine’s fan to operate at a different speed than the low-pressure compressor and turbine. The combination of the gear system and an all-new advanced core brings improvements in fuel efficiency and checks environmental emissions and noise.