AlliedSignal has received US Federal Aviation Administration approval to produce its 131-9(A) auxiliary power unit (APU) for the Airbus Industrie A320 family.
Programme manager Lee Jacobs says that deliveries of the 131-9(A) are scheduled to begin in September.
"We have firm orders for close to 50 aircraft and almost 50 options so far". Customers include Leisure International Airways, which is planning to take early examples through a retrofit programme, and Aer Lingus.
AlliedSignal considers approval of the 131-9(A) a vital step in its battle with Sundstrand's Auxiliary Power International (APIC). The APIC APS 3200 has won several large Airbus narrowbody orders and has in some cases been retrofitted in place of AlliedSignal's current 36-300(A) APU.
Airbus, meanwhile, plans to raise the maximum cruising altitude of its corporate jet, the A319CJ, to 41,000ft (12,500m) following successful cold weather start tests of the APU.
The 131-9(A) is internally identical to the earlier members of the 131 family developed for the Boeing Next Generation 737 and MD-90, and will become Allied-Signal's standard APU on the A320 family.
Source: Flight International
