Farnborough Show News - July 14, 2008 - (Page 82)

FA R N B O R O U G H 2 0 0 8 ON THE RECORD— Steve Finger, President, Pratt & Whitney Pratt Sees Geared Fan as New Aircraft Enabler With all eyes on record fuel prices and how to alleviate them, it appears that the only engine manufacturer with any hardware that promises relief is Pratt & Whitney with its geared turbofan. It is making a very public display of the first flight of its demonstrator—which will be tested later this year by Airbus on an A340—in contrast to GE, CFM and Rolls-Royce, who have pulled a veil of secrecy over their radical “cuisinart” open rotor concepts for future engines that are bedeviled by concerns over noise and exposed, large diameter rotating blades. Pratt & Whitney, in a departure from its usually quietly confident posture, is creating a lot of hoopla at this Farnborough Show, telling the world that the future is here, now—and it’s a geared turbofan. “Last year was the Year of the Gear, and we think that this year is, too, but frankly our theme at this show is ‘Redefining Flight,’ ” P&W president Steve Finger told Show News. P&W’s geared turbofan (GTF) is expected to burn 12% less fuel and cut noise and emis- “It’s always been that new aircraft, whether military or commercial, really don’t happen until you get a new engine. So we think the geared turbofan is the new engine that is going to redefine flight for the commercial marketplace for a long time to come.” —Steve Finger, president, Pratt & Whitney sions by half, compared to the best of today’s comparable engines (the V2500 Select). Its maintenance costs could show a 40% reduction from today’s commercial engines. “It’s always been that new aircraft, whether military or commercial, really don’t happen until you get a new engine,” said Finger. “So we think the geared turbofan is the new engine that is going to redefine flight for the commercial marketplace for a long time to come. “We have very publicly, very openly, over the course of the last year put our 30,000-lb thrust GTF demonstrator through 250 hours of testing. Now we’ve started flying it on our 747 flying test bed. We’re redefining flight.” Boeing and Airbus remain a d a m a n t t h a t t h e y d o n ’t want to design a fuel-saving 737/A320 replacement before 2018 because they’re sitting on six-year order backlogs, and they’re busy with the highermargin 787 and A350 XWB widebodies. Customers like Air France, however, are becoming far more vocal that Geared Fan is seen as providing the nearest-term relief for fuel woes. they want action now on making narrowbodies cheaper to operate. Pratt & Whitney’s geared turbofan will only feed those flames—and it’s probably the only powerplant solution available within the next few years. Rolls-Royce is wedded to the IAE partnership (in which P&W is a major partner) for supplying a 20,000-30,000-lbs thrust class engine for A320-sized aircraft. And GE (and thus CFM) hates gears, pointed out an industry observer. So Pratt’s competitors appear to be lagging by several years in offering any relief from oil prices with a new engine. Meanwhile the GTF has been “Airlines cannot wait until 2018 or 2020 for the kind of fuel-burn benefits that a geared turbofan brings.” —Steve Finger, president, Pratt & Whitney Fundamental Physics Favor the Fan, Says Finger “As long as we are dealing with the laws of physics on this earth, on this planet, then I believe the Geared Turbofan has an advantage” over our competitors, says Pratt & Whitney president Steve Finger. “Those laws of physics say there will be a step change benefit from the gear,” he told Show News. In a nutshell, anything his competitors can dream up in a core engine, Pratt can too for the core of the GTF. And it still has a geared fan to boot. “I am going to tell people here at Farnborough when they say my competitors claim they can match the benefits of a geared turbofan by 2020 that: a) we can do it by 2013, b) we’re flying now, and c) we don’t have operational trade-offs such as noise and slower cruise speeds [that an open rotor suffers].” selected by Mitsubishi to power its 90-seat MRJ and by Bombardier for its up to 135-seat C Series regional airliner. “Airlines cannot wait until 2018 or 2020 for the kind of fuel-burn benefits that a geared turbofan brings,” said Finger. “One option they have is to pressure today’s airplane manufacturers to accelerate the next generation airplane. The second option is to buy the Mitsubishi Regional Jet or the C Series (up to 135 seats). The third is to push the manufacturers to do something with their current airplanes. The benefit of a geared turbofan is not going to be quite as effective on an existing airplane [as on a new one] but there are still huge benefits. I think there will be a lot of push from airlines. “We’re ready for entry into service in 2013, and we will work with any airplane manufacturer on any airplane to have an engine ready for them,” said Finger. —John Morris 82 July 14, 2008 www.aviationweek.com/shownews http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Farnborough Show News - July 14, 2008

Farnborough Show News - July 14, 2008 Contents Thirty More Years CFM Reveals New Engine Boeing Reduces Forecast UAVs’ Quiet Revolution Finmeccanica: U.S. Success A Plethora of AESAs BAE North America Plus L-3 Becomes a Prime Better Late Than Never A Peek Behind the Curtain China’s J-10 Revealed Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner Breaking LM’s Hegemony

Farnborough Show News - July 14, 2008

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