Pratt & Whitney's PW5124A Fly Aboard Airbus Aircraft

The A318, the latest member of Airbus' A320 family, flew with new PW6000A engines (PW6124A) from Pratt & Whitney for the first time Thursday. Certification of this aircraft engine combination should take place towards the end of 2005 after some 500 flight hours.

The A318 took off from the Finkenwerder airfield at Airbus' Hamburg plant in Germany at 1016 local time and returned at 1308 after a successful mission, according to the company.

The flight, lasting three hours and eight minutes, was captained by Philippe Pellerin, Experimental Test Pilot with Bernd Sch�fer, Chief Pilot in Hamburg as first officer, Manfred Birnfeld and Hermann Schmoeckel as Flight Test Engineers /Test Conductors and Jean-Paul Lambertas Test Flight Engineer. The crew tested the aircraft through the full flight envelope and carried out initial performance assessment and low speed characteristics. In all cases the engines performed exactly as anticipated.

For short-haul, high-utilization operators, engine acquisition costs and maintenance work are the key economic drivers. The new PW6000A engine is designed to offer significant reduction in acquisition costs, maintenance costs and an increased time on wing. The engines are equipped with fewer compressor stages and 50 per cent fewer high-volume airfoils than other engines of this class in this segment. Seventy-five per cent of all line replacement units can be removed within 15 minutes while all life limited parts are designed to have the same long lives, thus leading to reduced maintenance costs. The PW6000A is meeting Stage 4 aircraft noise requirements and CAEP 6 engine emissions requirements with margin. The engine was FAR33 certified in November.

FMI: www.airbus.com