Farnborough 2008 Show News - July 15, 2008 - (Page 54) FA R N B O R O U G H 2 0 0 8 PW810 Takes P&WC to a Whole New Level Cessna’s selection of Pratt & Whitney Canada to power the large-cabin Columbus business jet is “extremely significant,” says P&WC president Alain Bellemare. “It launches a whole brand new family of engines, the PW800. It’s a new centerline design, a clean sheet of paper that takes us from 10,000 pounds to 20,000 pounds of thrust. We had nothing in this range before, so all of a sudden this launches us into large business aircraft, ultra long-range business aircraft, and regional airliners.” Pratt started work on the new engine in the mid 1990s with a goal of winning a regional jet application “but the first application is a business jet,” he said. does not have a geared turbofan. The high-pressure sections will be the same, but the low-pressure spool will be different as it doesn’t have to drive such a large fan. The Cessna engine is also scaled down slightly to 8,830-pounds-thrust. Pratt & Whitney Canada and its parent company in the U.S. are working more closely than ever on this engine as it crosses over their old dividing line of under-10,000pounds-thrust up north, and 10,000 pounds and bigger in East Hartford. The win has secured Pratt & Whitney a place in the 10K-sized engine market, following the victory by Rolls-Royce at Dassault on its Super Midsized jet. Honeywell, Snecma and GE Aviation are also competing with proposals for 10K engines. Bellemare said the next competition could be crucial. “If there is a third manufacturer coming into this same segment, in my view it is going to be one of the last ones, if not the last one. You come to a point where if you are number three or number four you have already lost two or three applications. You cannot make a business case work with just one application—it is impossible.” The cost of entry can be high, but Pratt’s business case is likely on firmer footing than most with the PW800’s wins at Mitsubishi and Bombardier. Business aviation manufacturers are using the competition in the engine sector to drive prices down. “They all expect the same,” said Bellemare. “They want very aggressive low pricing up front. They want to add exceptional customer support. And they want to make sure you have a very wide, global foot- Pratt & Whitney Canada’s PW810 will power new Cessna Columbus. print to support the aircraft. “That is one of the biggest changes. In the past, business aircraft were going largely to the U.S. market. Now they’re global. The airframers expect us to expand our MRO and maintenance operations around the world.” Pratt & Whitney Canada, he claimed, has the broadest aftermarket network of any of the business jet engine makers as it already supports 42,000 engines in service in 190 different countries.—John Morris Service Offerings Expanded, European Customers Benefit Faced with a massive increase in the number of engines in service, Pratt & Whitney Canada decided to invest heavily in its customer support operations to keep customers happy—and flying. Operators in Europe have been major beneficiaries, with engine-related downtimes cut in half and the promise of parts delivery within an average 12 hours of placing an order. “We will have 50,000 engines in service within five years, about 10,000 more than now,” said Maria Della Posta, vp of customer support, who noted it took 10 years for the previous 10,000-unit increase. The rapid ramp-up called for a determined strategy if customer support was to keep up, let alone improve. “Our strategy had three areas of particular focus,” said Della Posta. “To improve every aspect of support and parts delivery, to restructure our front line support systems to assist with AOGs and parts distribution, and to constantly benchmark our products to continuously improve reliability.” Leading the charge is P&WC’s Customer First Centre, which is just celebrating its first year in operation. This 24/7 call center offers a single point of contact for customers; it brings together under one umbrella experts in technical support, logistics, service engineering, engine maintenance programs and warranty. It even has a resident representative from DHL to ensure parts are shipped in the fastest way possible. Pratt Canada has also changed the way it measures the effectiveness of its support from how quickly it can deliver a part to how quickly an airplane is returned to service. —John Morris P&WC president Alain Bellemare. The significance of the PW800 is that its advanced core configuration will be scaled up and used for the Geared Turbofan GTF engines selected to power the Mitsubishi Regional Jet and the Bombardier C Series airliners. And these geared turbofans will form the basis of Pratt & Whitney’s ambition to power the next generation replacements for the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320. The PW810 for the Columbus PW810’s a Standard-Beater The PW810 will surpass International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) emissions standards by up to 50% for nitrous oxide and by up to 35% for carbon monoxide emissions, and will also achieve low unburned hydrocarbons and smoke emissions. Noise will be well below Stage IV standards. —Pratt & Whitney Canada. 54 July 15, 2008 www.aviationweek.com/shownews http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews
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