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PurePower engines complete 12000 hours of testing

PW-1100G-JM Geared Turbofan Engine of Airbus A320neo Pratt & Whitney's PurePower® engine family reached another milestone this ye...

PW-1100G-JM Geared Turbofan Engine of Airbus A320neo
Pratt & Whitney's PurePower® engine family reached another milestone this year when it exceeded 12,000 hours of testing.

The milestone comes after a year of accomplishments, including the Airbus A320neo first flight, the Gulfstream G500 and G600 business jets launch and the Mitsubishi Regional Jet aircraft rollout – all of which are powered by PurePower engines.

The PurePower engine family has completed more than 23,500 cycles of testing and 1,700 hours of flight testing.

The maiden flight of the A320neo aircraft occurred onSept. 25, several weeks ahead of schedule. With the first flight of the A320neo, Pratt & Whitney now has two PurePower engine platforms powering aircraft in test flights.

Gulfstream Aerospace launched its new family of G500 and G600 business jets, which will be powered exclusively by Pratt &Whitney Canada'sPurePower PW800 engine, a 16,000-pound-thrust class engine, onOct. 14.
Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation rolled out its first MRJ inNagoya, Japan, onOct. 18. Mitsubishi, the first company to choose this next generation technology, will exclusively power the MRJ with PurePower PW1200G engines.
The PurePower Geared Turbofan engine family has more than 6,000 orders and commitments, including options, for five different aircraft platforms: the Mitsubishi MRJ, Airbus A320neo, Bombardier CSeries, Embraer E-Jets E2, and Irkut MC-21. The PurePower engines will deliver double-digit improvements in fuel burn, noise and emissions to all customers.

Greg Gernhardt, president, Pratt & Whitney Commercial Engines said "Next year is going to be historic for the Geared Turbofan™ (GTF) engines. Pratt & Whitney Commercial Engines will have five active flight tests, three GTF engine certifications, and two planes powered by GTF engines entering into service by the end of 2015."

Despite all these, On May 29, an uncontained failure of a Pratt & Whitney PW1500G Geared Turbofan (GTF) engine on the Bombardier CSeries test aircraft FTV1 during ground runs, resulted in grounding of the fleet for months. The fault was later traced to the lubrication system of the engine.

The PurePower PW1000G engine family, employs a state of the art gear system that separates the engine fan from the low pressure compressor and turbine, allowing each of the modules to operate at their optimum speeds. This enables both an increase in the diameter of the fan and the low pressure compressor and turbine to operate at a high speed. The increased efficiency is also enhanced by having 2,000 fewer airfoils and six fewer stages – hot section parts that traditionally require more maintenance.
The PurePower family also incorporates advances in aerodynamics, lightweight materials and other major technology improvements in the high-pressure spool, low-pressure turbine, combustor, controls, engine health monitoring and more.