Announcement Made At The Moscow Air Show
Pratt & Whitney announced Wednesday it has successfully
completed accelerated endurance testing equivalent to more than
20,000 hours of service operation on the PurePower PW1000G fan
drive gear system. "Results from the latest round of on-going tests
continue to demonstrate the design robustness for the PurePower fan
drive gear system," said Bob Saia, vice president, Next Generation
Product Family, Pratt & Whitney. The fan drive gear system and
its patented Geared Turbofan technology target double-digit
reductions in fuel burn, environmental emissions, engine noise and
operating costs.
More than 1,000 hours of laboratory testing on the fan drive
gear system have produced significant accomplishments such as
simulating more than 40,000 take offs "at the equivalent loads at
30,000 pounds of thrust" loads, with 15,000 of those being maximum
torque takeoffs at extreme oil temperatures. Post-test inspections
have revealed the gears, journal bearings and components to be in
excellent condition after this rigorous testing.
The recent endurance testing for the fan drive gear system
further supports the findings from the PW1000G demonstrator engine,
which confirmed the system's robust design and efficiency with
lower than predicted heat rejection into the engine oil system. The
PW1000G Demonstrator Engine garnered 406 hours of operation with
120 hours in flight.
"The PW1000G engine demonstration program showed the fan drive
gear system was invisible to the airplane, with overall operation
of the geared turbofan engine the same as today's conventional
engines, only with lower fuel consumption and drastically lower
noise," said Saia.
The fan drive gear system does not use any life limited parts or
exotic materials. It also allows for fewer engine stages, thus
lowering overall engine weight and engine maintenance cost.
With the fan drive gear system, the PW1000G engine's
low-pressure turbine can operate at higher rotational speeds for
peak efficiency, while the engine's fan can operate at lower speeds
compatible with optimum propulsive efficiency and significantly
lower levels of noise. In addition, the fan drive gear system
allows for a larger fan diameter that can accommodate more air
flow.
The PurePower PW1000G engine demonstration program conducted in
2008 confirmed performance and noise projections for this advanced
engine design. Engine noise measurement confirmed Pratt &
Whitney's target of 20 decibels below today's stage 4 standard.