Pratt Chat: A321neo Aircraft Certification Marks an Exciting Milestone for P&W
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2016
Tom Pelland, senior vice president, Commercial Engine Programs, explains the significance of the A321neo's joint Type Certification on this episode of Pratt Chat. The certified A321neo is powered by the Pratt & Whitney PurePower® Geared Turbofan™ engine.
Rob McGuinness: Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Pratt Chat. I'm Rob McGuinness with Pratt & Whitney Communications. I'm here today with Tom Pelland. Tom is our senior vice president of Commercial Engine Programs. He's here to talk to us today about the joint Type Certification for the Airbus A321neo. That aircraft is powered by Pratt & Whitney's PurePower Geared Turbofan engine.
Rob McGuinness: Hi, Tom. How are you?
Tom Pelland: I'm good. How are you? Thank you for inviting me.
Rob McGuinness: Thank you for joining me.
Rob McGuinness: Tom, give us a little bit of context. Why is this certification an important milestone for our engine program and for Airbus and the airlines?
Tom Pelland: I think any new certification of an airplane type is an exciting milestone for us at Pratt & Whitney, and it is not insignificant that the A321 is a derivative, if you will, of the A320. But it's still a new aircraft type and requires a tremendous amount of effort and dedication from both the Airbus team but also the folks at Pratt & Whitney to certify a new aircraft. It's not a simple thing. So, part of what makes it significant is it's just a tremendous amount of work and requires a tremendous amount of expertise and dedication from the folks at Pratt. So, I'd just like to congratulate and thank everybody for achieving this milestone.
Tom Pelland: You know, a second part of it is we've actually sold a number of A321 aircraft, so there's customers depending on both Airbus and Pratt & Whitney to certify the A321. From a significance standpoint, that customer commitment that we made, and the customer's faith they put in us to be able to certify this engine on the A321 aircraft, that in and of itself makes it an important milestone for us and for our customers.
Rob McGuinness: Absolutely. Tom, how will airlines and airport communities benefit from a GTF-powered A321neo?
Tom Pelland: There's been a lot of press about the benefits of the A321, and we're demonstrating the performance commitments we've made - 16 percent better than the existing engine installations on a 321, noise, emissions, all the benefits that we anticipated with the GTF - they're being demonstrated every day on the 320. And on the 321, because it's a longer-range aircraft, typically than a 320, the benefits that you would see, relative to the existing product lines, are actually greater.
Tom Pelland: I mean, a 321 aircraft, because of its mission, will have a better fuel burn benefit than an A320 will today. So, all the things that we like and love about the GTF are actually, they're better on an A321 aircraft. The 321 is obviously a target aircraft for us because of the enhanced benefits that the GTF can provide.
Rob McGuinness: The GTF is now in service on four continents with the Bombardier C Series and the A320neo. How is it performing, and what kind of feedback are you receiving from operators?
Tom Pelland: The engine performance has been very, very good. The performance is where we said it would be. The dispatch reliability for a new product is actually quite good. We have airlines that are flying seven to eight flights per day. We're accumulating - on a fleet wide basis - over 150 hours per day.
Tom Pelland: So, yes, we've had challenges. And those challenges have been very public. And part of the risk you take when you have a transformational product like the GTF is you get a lot of press, both good and bad, but the feedback we're getting from the customer base, yes, they want us to fix our issues, and they believe we will. They love the performance. They love the noise. They actually really like the thrust characteristics of the motor. So the feedback has been positive. While they've been vocal about the challenges - and we're addressing them - they like the product.
Rob McGuinness: They love the performance. They love the product.
Rob McGuinness: Tom, congratulations to you and your team on a significant milestone with this certification.
Rob McGuinness: I think that wraps it up for this episode of Pratt Chat. For Pratt & Whitney Communications, I'm Rob McGuinness. Until next time, take care, everyone.