Embraer is working with Pratt & Whitney Canada to help Phenom 100 operators save money on engine maintenance by moving from calendar-based servicing to on-condition maintenance.
The differences are substantial: on a calendar-based maintenance plan, engines will require a hot-section inspection at 1,750h and removal and overhaul at 3,500h. Operators using an on-condition maintenance plan, however, will have their inspection and overhaul limits pushed out to 5,000h and 10,000h respectively.
The generosity comes with a price: on-condition operators have the added responsibility of tracking engine performance, since on-condition maintenance is based on monitoring the engine's critical parameters for trends and changes over its life.
Embraer, working with P&WC, plans to help. Within six months of service entry, the companies plan to launch a maintenance monitoring function that will automatically send data recorded by the aircraft's centralised maintenance computer to the ground, where Embraer will analyse engine parameters and other subsystems for trends and anomalies, alerting the owner if need be and logging the information needed to qualify for on-condition maintenance.
Owners will also be able to download the data themselves after a flight and send to Embraer. The system is similar to the company's onboard aircraft health analysis and diagnosis (Ahead) package, now being using by some airlines with E-Jets. Ahead transmits real-time aircraft and engine fault data to the ground for analysis.
The PW600 family, which also powers the Cessna Citation Mustang and Eclipse 500, had accumulated more than 7,000h as of early September. The PW617F programme for the Phenom was launched in May 2005 and first flew in October 2006. Pratt & Whitney expects to certify the engine in the first quarter of 2008.
The engines feature a 50% reduction in part count from typical business jet engines, according to P&WC, "offering customers in the entry-level jet market excellent performance and significantly reduced costs for great value." Dual-channel full authority digital engine control systems are standard equipment on the powerplants.
Source: Flight International
