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Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) made a series of announcement at the European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (EBACE) in Geneva, Switzerland.
PurePower PW800 engine
P&WC revealed that its PurePower PW800 engine is completing preparations for entry into service (EIS) by the end of this year, ahead of schedule after achieving a number of recent milestones. This groundbreaking power plant is the only new engine in its thrust class that’s on the verge of entering service.
P&WC is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp.
“The PurePower PW800 has demonstrated that its technology ready through thousands of hours of rigorous ground and flight testing, during which it has surpassed expectations,” said Scott McElvaine, vice-president, marketing and customer service, PurePower PW800 engines.
Testing on the engine has reached the milestone of more than 13,000 hours, including over 6,000 hours on P&WC’s Flying Test Bed and on Gulfstream’s G500 and G600 flight test aircraft.
Leadership in business aviation
P&WC also highlighted a number of achievements related to its turbofan engine families that demonstrate the company’s leadership in the business jet sector.
“Our PW300 engine family, with a power capability that ranges from 4,700 to 8,000 pounds thrust, has proven itself time and again to be the go-to powerplant for a wide variety of business jets in the medium to large cabin classes,” said Michael Perodeau, vice-president of marketing and business aviation, P&WC. “A number of our PW300 programs are achieving flight-hour milestones that speak to the sustained popularity of these engines, their operating efficiencies and their durability. This complements the experience gained on our other, smaller turbofan models, and together provides the foundation for developing our larger PurePower PW800 family of engines.
High levels of flying hours mean we have extensive sources of data across the whole spectrum of operating environments to enable us to:
- Develop and optimize engine features and maintenance and methods;
- Continuously develop and introduce improvements over time to our products and services; and
- Develop and introduce creative predictive tools to maximize aircraft availability.
P&WC to deliver predictive and preventive maintenance
Pratt & Whitney Canada’s turnkey FAST (Flight, Acquisition, Storage and Transmission) engine prognostics solution has been Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certified for PT6A engine-powered Beechcraft King Air B200 and B300 series of aircraft, bringing new levels of data-driven engine health management to one of the most popular aircraft of its kind in the world. Through deep engine insight provided by the FAST solution, P&WC will help Beechcraft King Air customers optimize maintenance planning, reduce costs and pilot workload, as well as improve aircraft availability.
“The FAST solution is one of a number of ways we are helping customers move toward our ultimate goal of a more fully planned maintenance environment,” says Tim Swail, vice-president, customer programs, P&WC. “We have delivered over 6,000 diagnostics, prognostics and health management systems, including the FAST solution, across all segments and are seeing increasing demand for FAST technology and its prognostics capabilities. We now have the FAST solution certified for the PT6A-140A-powered Caravan EX and the PT6A-powered King Air B200/300 series. We are in active discussions with several OEMs and working on additional certifications to bring this capability across the PT6 engine family.”
P&WC continues to enhance engine and aircraft “connectivity” through its ability to provide customers with rapid insight and situational awareness about engine and aircraft health, usage and trends. The FAST solution automates the capture and analysis of a wide range of full-flight engine and aircraft parameters and can provide wireless access to encrypted and secure FDR data minutes after the pilot shuts down the engine.
Unlike many avionics systems, which still require manual intervention to off-load data from the aircraft, the FAST solution enables wireless transmission and the ability to capture complete mission data–from engine start to shut down. Once provided with this comprehensive full-flight data, P&WC is able to analyze and share it with customers and maintenance crews so they can more quickly have meaningful information about their engine and aircraft at their fingertips.
To date, more than 1,100 FAST solutions have been delivered across all platforms. In addition to the certification of the FAST solution for the Beechcraft King Air B200 and B300 series, as well as PT6A engine-140-powered Cessna Grand Caravan EX aircraft, the FAST solution provides deep engine insight on P&WC-powered business jets, regional airliners, helicopter and general aviation platforms.
Proactive help desk
P&WC is launching a “proactive help desk” under its suite of digital engine services as a next step in providing preventative, data-driven maintenance management and “consulting services” support to customers. It will be rolled out to other engine families in the future, including the new PurePower PW800 engine family.
The proactive help desk will be first introduced to customers whose PW300 engines are covered under P&WC’s Eagle Service Plan (ESP Program) pay-per-hour maintenance program. The new program adds value and differentiation to P&WC’s offerings to business aviation customers who have invested in ESP program coverage and P&WC’s advanced diagnostics and prognostics solutions.
“P&WC’s proactive help desk will be supported by a dedicated team of aviation technicians and data analysts addressing customers’ needs through the use of data-driven decision making and preventative maintenance tools and practices,” said Tim Swail, vice-president of customer programs, P&WC.
“The team, which will continue to expand as the service is rolled out to other engine families, conducts daily reviews of customer data from sources such as our FAST solution, to identify and flag maintenance requirements so they can be addressed during scheduled field interventions. Our proactive help desk is one of a number of steps we are taking to move all customers toward more fully planned maintenance environments.”
Its goal is to increase aircraft availability and reduce costs by leveraging engine monitoring, trend analysis and alerts to provide the ability to schedule field interventions in advance of a potential event–minimizing downtime and in some cases resolving issues before they occur or avoiding them entirely.
“Data provided by our new oil analysis technology will also play a role in our proactive help desk service by allowing for a highly accurate assessment of key oil-wetted components, and we are also launching this technology commercially for PW306A engine customers,” said Swail. “For the PW306A engine now, and other engines in the future, we see our FAST and oil analysis solutions as complementary steps toward an all-encompassing view of the health and efficiency of in service engines.”
The company’s FAST solution captures full-flight engine data, looking at hundreds of engine parameters and wirelessly transmits it for analysis after the pilot shuts down the engine. The oil analysis technology examines minute particles within the oil that indicate the health of oil-wetted components, such as bearings and gears which are critical to engine operation, with high precision.
P&WC has delivered more than 1,100 FAST systems to customers, which are providing deep engine insight on P&WC-powered business jets, regional airliners, helicopter and general aviation platforms. P&WC’s oil analysis technology program continues to build momentum with its commercial rollout on PW306A engines at EBACE and nearly 4,000 engines enrolled in the ongoing customer trial.
P&WC launches innovative oil analysis solution
P&WC’s groundbreaking oil analysis technology is making its debut at European Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition (EBACE) 2017 as a commercially available solution on PW306A engine-powered business aviation aircraft.
One of the many examples of P&WC’s leadership in data-driven engine health, P&WC’s oil analysis solution will provide an innovative oil system prognostic capability, also playing a role in the company’s new proactive help desk, which is also being launched at EBACE starting with the PW300 engine family.
“Innovative services like our oil analysis technology and FAST prognostics solutions are allowing us to provide deeper levels of analysis and broaden the scope of our data-driven engine health management solutions–resulting in our ability to provide customers with a comprehensive, turnkey approach to digital engine services,” said Swail. “For our customers, time is a critical success factor for their business, and aircraft availability is an important enabler. Our solutions provide a high degree of visibility into the health and efficient operation of their engines without intrusive inspections, which enables a proactive and preventive approach. As a result we are helping to lower operating costs, save customers time and maximize the availability of their aircraft. We are also moving toward our ultimate goal, which is to support our customers’ operations by enabling a more fully planned maintenance environment for the engines.”
The oil analysis solution will enable P&WC to identify potential maintenance events at an early stage so they can be addressed proactively or avoided entirely. Customers will receive personalized reports and maintenance recommendations based on oil sample findings, enabling optimized shop-visit planning.
What’s more, PW306A engine customers who are enrolled in an Eagle Service Plan (ESP) pay-per-hour program will benefit from the service at no additional cost for the rest of the year. The solution will be part of the standard ESP program for PW306A engines starting in 2018.
P&WC has developed and optimized the oil analysis program by working closely with operators, fixed-based operators (FBOs) and aircraft original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Many of them have taken part in an ongoing customer trial as early adopters to help diversify the oil sample base and calibrate the technology across a variety of P&WC engine models.
To date, nearly 4,000 oil samples have been received across all engine families. With trials continuing on other engine models, the solution will keep evolving as our knowledge base continues to grow.
The oil analysis technology program complements P&WC’s FAST solution.
With solutions such as these, P&WC is leading the way in facilitating advanced, proactive and preventative engine health management so that customers can reduce their costs and workload, increase their efficiency and enjoy greater peace of mind.
On-condition maintenance program
P&WC customers of the PW306D1 engine-powered Cessna Citation Latitude can now benefit from special ESP pay-per-hour program rates if they are on the on-condition engine maintenance program and have the FAST diagnostics and prognostics solution installed on their aircraft.
Deeper insight into the condition of the engine through advanced analytics–coming from solutions like P&WC’s FAST system–enable this tailored approach to engine maintenance, saving customers time and money by avoiding unnecessary downtime. Ultimately, P&WC can assess much of the condition of the engine without intrusive inspections or engine removals.
PW306D1 engine-powered aircraft have the option, as part of their engine maintenance manual, of conducting on-condition maintenance.
“On-condition maintenance provides for greater aircraft availability, reduced costs for business jet customers and better dispatch reliability,” said Swail. “It’s another example of how we are using the latest technologies to tailor our solutions and programs to anticipate and meet the needs of our customers for whom time is a precious commodity.”
