AirInsight has exclusive detail about MRJ delay

Mitsubishi last month announced a delay of more than one year for the MRJ, but was rather vague about the reason.

AirInsight has the detail, following an interview at the Pratt & Whitney media day attended by officials of the Japanese company in town for the first flight of the MRJ’s PW GTF engine.

PW to dual-source neo engine manufacture

Pratt & Whitney will dual source manufacture of the A320neo GTF engine so there is no single point of failure, an official said at the PW Media Day in Hartford.

Tom Mayes, general manager of the company’s Middletown (CT) facility, also said that a decision hasn’t been made for a production location of the GTF version for the Mitsubishi MRJ. PW is assembling the Bombardier CSeries version at Montreal Mirabel Airport.

PW CEO David Hess said the GTF, offered on the A320neo, the CSeries, MRJ and the Irkut MC-21, will drive PW’s revenues from $12.7bn last year to twice that by 2020. Over the life of the program, Hess estimates the GTF will produce $325bn in revenues.

There currently is a backlog of more than 2,600 GTFs.

Ground and flight testing is validating promises about GTF performance, Hess told the international media: 16% better fuel consumption vs today’s engines, lower noise and on-target maintenance forecasts.

Odds and Ends: Boeing revises MAX winglet, adding 1.5% to efficiency

Update, 2:15 PM PDT: Airbus issued this response to the Boeing development:

“This kind of split-tip device was among the options we studied for the A320 Family, and we decided instead to advance with our Sharklet design as the most efficient.  Our Sharklet figures (3.5% improvement over the already-efficient A320 wing with wing-tip fences) are flight-test proven.”

Original Post:

Boeing today announced a revised winglet to add 1.5% in fuel efficiency for the 737 MAX, releasing a photo. See here. This will be on top of the advertised 10%12% fuel burn gain previously announced.

Separately, David Hess, CEO of Pratt & Whitney, told the PW media day “that as far as we know, the 737 MAX is not an opportunity for us,” citing the Boeing-CFM exclusivity agreement.

Update, 0900 PDT: Boeing held a tele-press conference to discuss the new “Boeing Advanced Technology Winglets,” (BATW) which it also called “dual feathered” winglets.

Boeing said this is an exclusive Boeing design and not derived from a similar design promoted by Aviation Partners. Key points:

• Up to 1.5% lower fuel burn, depending on the length of mission;
• The design used Computational Fluid Dynamics to design it, a process used from the 787/747-8 programs;
• This is completely new technology, not having roots to the MD-11 which has a similar-looking wingtip arrangement;
• The wingspan is increased by only “inches” compared with the NG;
• The BATW is likely scalable to larger aircraft;
• There are no current plans to make the BATW available on the NG, though this could change;
• Although there will be some benefit to range, the BATW isn’t significant;
• Boeing now claims 18% better all-in costs than the current Airbus A320 (based on figures as a starting point Airbus disputes);
• This just about does it for aerodynamic changes to the 737; architectural changes should be nailed down in the third or fourth quarter; and
• “Our major trades aerodynamically are done.”

Aviation Partners has a similar concept; the differences between Boeing and AP are evident.

Here’s how McDonnell Douglas executed a similar concept on the MD-11:

Odds and Ends: A320ceo production to end in 2018–PW; responds to 777X RFI

A320 Current Engine Option: The Airbus A320ceo production will end in 2018, according to David Hess, the president of Pratt & Whitney. Hess made the remarks today at the annual PW media day.

Hess said PW anticipates delivering an aggregate of 8,000 V2500 engines by the time the A320ceo winds down.

GTF to have >1m hours by year-end 2015: Hess also said the GTF will have accumulated more than 1m hours of tests and operations by the end of 2015 and more than 3m hours by the time the Boeing 737 MAX enters service in 4Q2017.

PW revenue will double from $12.7bn today: Hess said revenue will double by the end of 2020, driven by the GTF and aftermarket support. “The engines that we are developing today will define PW.”

Second GTF variant enters flight test: The Mitsubishi variant of the GTF made its first flight yesterday.

PW responds to Boeing RFI for 777X engine: in the 90,000-100,000 lb class. The benefits of GTF grow the larger the engine, says Hess.