Pratt & Whitney has entered early testing on the PurePower PW1524G geared turbofan, having achieved idle and full power runs.
The first of eight planned test engines, S/N001, had its first run to idle power on 25 September at the company's West Palm Beach, Florida, facility and was later run to full power, 24,000lbs (107kN) of thrust, on 8 October. To date, the engines have conducted around 10h of testing, say Pratt.
The engine maker says assembly of the second and third test engines are underway at its Middletown, Connecticut facility.
Engine S/N002 will be run through a rigorous ground test regime, as will Engine S/N001, which iwill remain on the test stand until December, at which point the engine will be inspected for wear and tear, as well as required modifications before returning to the test stand.
The first six months of the two-year development process will be devoted to establishing the conforming article for regulatory approval, which will be followed by 15-18 months of certification testing.
Engine S/N003 will be put through initial ground checks before it is fitted under the wing of Pratt & Whitney's Boeing 747SP test bed for flight trials in the second quarter 2011.
The all-new powerplant features a geared architecture allowing the front fan to spin three times slower than the core, thus optimising the speed of each section of the engine. Pratt touts a 15% to 20% improvement in fuel burn over equivalent engines.
The PW1524G will power the first of two Bombardier CSeries aircraft, the 110 to 125-seat CS100, which is due for first flight in 2012 followed by entry into service in 2013.
The PurePower PW1000G engine has been selected by the Mitsubishi MRJ and Irkut MS-21, and is a candidate for re-engining the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 families.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
