The aircraft engine industry has taken its first step toward sub-system integration for external accessory components with the successful flight testing of the Hamilton Sundstrand Modular Integrated Systems Package for the PW6000 engine. The test was performed on the Pratt & Whitney PW6000 programme's flight test bed. The flight test bed, a Boeing 720, was equipped with three Pratt & Whitney JT3D engines and one PW6000 engine. The testing verified a variety of engine operability conditions during 90h of flying during the first phase of the flight demonstration programme, while the second phase of flight testing began during the first week of June. "The Hamilton Sundstrand PW6000 Modular Integrated Systems Package is the engine industry's first step in sub-system integration for external accessory components," says Joe Triompo, president of Engine & Control Systems at Hamilton Sundstrand. "The PW6000 module takes the basic engine gearbox functions of fuel pumping, fuel management and oil system management and integrates these external accessory components into a subsystem that improves the cost and enhances the reliability and maintainability of the engine." What makes this programme so successful is that one company was able to take responsibility for the manufacture and integration of all of the components in the subsystem," Triompo says.
External
Hamilton Sundstrand's design of the external components reduces the number of gear axes in the engine gearbox assembly from eight to six. The design also eliminates 10 external plumbing lines by integrating fluid passages within the main gearbox housing. "The Modular Integrated Systems Package enables us to streamline the assembly of the engine, since Hamilton Sundstrand supplies the sub-system already assembled," says Tom Hutton, general manager of the Pratt & Whitney Engine Centre in Middletown, Connecticut. In late May this year, Pratt & Whitney celebrated the completion of the first PW6000 production engine at the facility in Middletown. Hundreds of employees were on hand for the ceremonial turn of the last bolt. The engine was then shipped to France to serve as the centrepiece of Pratt and Whitney¹s display at Le Bourget. The PW6000 covers the 16,000-24,000lb (71-106kN) thrust class and is targeted for aircraft in the 100-passenger size. Seven development PW6000 engines have logged more than 2,000 test hours and 3,000 cycles. Pratt & Whitney will ship two production PW6000s to Toulouse this August for flight testing on the A318. The PW6000 engine is scheduled to enter service in November 2002.
Source: Flight Daily News
