Icing Tests Next On The Agenda For New Powerplant
Icing testing has begun on Pratt & Whitney's PurePower
PW1524G engine that will power the Bombardier CSeries aircraft
family. The company anticipates completing engine certification by
the end of 2012.
To date the PW1524G engine test program has run more than 1,200
hours of full engine testing – including more than 200 flight
hours on its 747 flight test airplane (pictured). The PurePower
PW1200G engine for the Mitsubishi Regional Jet has completed more
than 600 hours of full engine testing and is scheduled to begin its
first flight test campaign in April. Certification testing for the
PW1200G engine is scheduled to begin by the end of the second
quarter. These first two PurePower engine applications have
accumulated more than 1,800 hours and 4,800 cycles of full engine
testing.
In September 2011, the PW1524G engine for the Bombardier CSeries
aircraft completed its first flight test program on Pratt &
Whitney's Flying Test Bed, logging 25 flights with 115 flight
hours. A second PW1524G flight test engine has since completed more
than 100 hours and 20 flights at the company's Mirabel Aerospace
Centre, in Mirabel, Quebec (Canada). The state-of-the-art facility,
which opened in 2011, features advanced manufacturing technologies
and will house final production assembly and test for the PurePower
PW1500G engine. The first PW1524G production engines for Bombardier
will be built there this summer.
"We have rigorously prepared the PurePower engine family for
successful certification," said Todd Kallman, president, Commercial
Engines & Global Services. "As a result of our rig, core and
full-engine testing, we are confident the PurePower engine family
is ready."
In addition to more than 1,800 hours of full engine testing,
Pratt & Whitney performed critical part-level and engine
sub-system testing to validate PurePower engine program designs,
including hundreds of hours of core testing; design validation of
the Fan Drive Gear System; fan blade for bird ingestion; blade
containment; and compressor performance for the advanced PW1000G
engine core.
Pratt & Whitney says the combination of its gear system and
advanced core allows PurePower engines to deliver double-digit
improvements in fuel efficiency and emissions with a 50-percent
reduction in noise over today's engines.
The PurePower engine has been selected as exclusive power for
the Bombardier CSeries aircraft and Mitsubishi Regional Jet. It
will also power the first Airbus A320neo aircraft, as well as the
Irkut MC-21 narrow-body jet.