Aerospace Diary

by Neelam Mathews January 18/21  2019, 1:30 PM Reacting to a recent incident of smoke in the cabin of an Indigo Airbus A320neo fitted with Pratt & Whitney PW1100G engines, India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Thursday put into place “additional measures...for immediate compliance by Interglobe Aviation Ltd. (Indigo) and Go Air for identifying and correcting impending failures in dry face seals and LPT (low-pressure turbines).” The DGCA has ruled the operators must carry out weekly inspections of third-stage LPT blades. For newer engines, it requires boroscope inspection at first oil filter change and “at next opportunity or A-Check, whichever is earlier,” for engines that already underwent their first oil filter change and have accumulated less than 1000 flight hours. The regulator also has recommended an awareness program for cabin and cockpit crew on odor and smoke during the approach phase of flight. The notice came within nine days of an interaction amo...

Neelam Mathews With over 13,000 large commercial engines installed , Pratt & Whitney is no amateur to this business. So lets cut some flak. The GTF engine is a class by its one and as a Head of Engineering of a major airline told aerospacediary: “ Technology such as this takes some time to get off ground.” He added: “Remember the battery issue in the 787s? Now we hardly talk about it.” Even the aviation ministry said recently in-flight shutdown cases in A320neos in India are less than global average but it would do a comparable study to assess the timeline of teething issues in new engines. So, at a meeting at the ministry when senior aviation ministry officials met with their stakeholders to discuss the GTF performance of the A320neos, the only issue and status to be give by Pratt was regarding the main gearbox and status of root cause analysis. Pratt has said work is on and will be submitted to the DGCA in a few weeks. Secretary Choubey confirmed Pratt is working...

Neelam Mathews Oct 24, 2017 AIN (US) Indian low-fare airline IndiGo, the first A320neo operator in Asia, has reduced its aircraft on ground (AOG) to two machines following operational disruptions involving the airplanes’ Pratt & Whitney PW11000G geared turbofans since early last year. In India, the number of airframes awaiting spare engines has fallen from 15 to three—two with IndiGo and one with GoAir. With 430 A320neos on order, IndiGo has yet to make a decision on the engine choice for a second tranche of 280 airplanes. However, with increases in fuel prices and the competitive environment in India, IndiGo might choose to operate the Pratt-powered airplanes for a longer period than its usual limit of six years, said IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh during a July conference call to discuss quarterly earnings. Ghosh cited a 15-percent lower fuel burn and “a much lower risk of technological obsolescence” in the PW1100G as factors in his d...