Overcoming PW1000G issues

UPON SERVICE entry, Pratt & Whitney’s PW1000G engines for the A320neo and the Bombardier C Series had well-publicized issues with rotor-bowing and then – when that issue was solved – with premature degradation of the number three bearing oil seal and of the inner and outer combustor liners. These issues caused a sizeable number of A320neos (particularly those operating in India’s harsh environmental conditions) and a few CS100s to be grounded until their engines could be replaced. The aircraft remained grounded until Pratt & Whitney delivered spare engines to replace those initially installed and took the original engines back for repair. Pratt & Whitney still has to repair some engines still on-wing by installing the permanent fixes it developed for the part-degradation problems but expects to complete that activity in the next few months.

Initially, also, Pratt & Whitney had a severe production-quality issue with the innovative hybridaluminium fan blades developed for all versions of the PW1000G, the issue being compounded by the fact that Pratt & Whitney only had one facility producing the blades. As a result, for more than a year deliveries of PW1000G fan blades were far less than the numbers required.

These two problems led Pratt & Whitney to fail to meet its PW1000G production targets until mid-2017 and its on-wing installation targets on newly manufactured aircraft until the end of 2017, the company having to deliver far more new engines as spares in 2017 than it had originally planned.

An air flow diagram of the Pratt & Whitney PW1000G engine. Pratt & Whitney

However, by the end of the year Pratt & Whitney had solved the remaining PW1000G technical issues and almost all temporarily grounded aircraft were flying again.

Meanwhile, the company solved the PW1000G fan-blade production-quality issue and also opened two more factories to make the blades, with the result that by autumn 2017 PW1000G production had ramped up dramatically. In all Pratt & Whitney delivered 374 PW1000Gs in 2017 and Hayes said on January 24 that the company will deliver double that number in 2018. By 2022 Pratt & Whitey hopes that it will be able to deliver 2,000 PW1000Gs a year if demand warrants.