Pratt & Whitney Signs Five New Engine Management Program Contracts

Pratt & Whitney recently signed five new contracts for its Engine Management Program (EMP) service in which Pratt & Whitney monitors and helps maintain customers' engine performance.

Through these agreements, Pratt & Whitney has two new U.S.-based customers -- Southern Air, located in Norwalk, Conn., with an eight-year EMP agreement for twelve PW4000 engines and Capital Cargo, based out of Orlando, Fla., with a five-year EMP agreement for six PW2000 engines. Internationally, China Cargo has signed a three-year EMP agreement on four of its PW2000 engines. Greece-based Astra Airlines has signed a three-year EMP agreement for two V2500 engines and Icelandair has agreed to a five-year EMP agreement for eight PW4060 engines. 

Click here to read Pratt & Whitney's press release.

Coverage:

• Southern Air signs on with Pratt & Whitney (Connecticut Post)

Pratt & Whitney’s F119 Engine Achieves Significant Milestones

Pratt & Whitney has delivered the 500th F119 engine, which powers the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, to the U.S. Air Force. This delivery is accompanied by another significant milestone for the F119 program – more than 20 years of simulated operational service through Accelerated Mission Tests (AMTs), an achievement that further demonstrates the maturity and dependability of the world's first fifth-generation fighter engine.

An accelerated mission test compresses many years of operational service into a short duration test, which allows for a robust evaluation of engine durability. During the most recent period of testing, an F119 production engine ran for nearly 570 hours, accumulating more than 2,000 cycles or approximately four years of service. Combined with previous testing, this engine has now surpassed 20 years of simulated operational service. Pratt & Whitney F119 engines have accumulated over 230,000 of actual operational flight hours powering the F-22 fleet.

Click here to read the Pratt & Whitney press release. 

Pratt & Whitney Selected for Negotiations for U.S. Air Force Adaptive Engine Technology Development Program

Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX), has been selected for negotiations by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) for the Adaptive Engine Technology Development (AETD) program. The AETD program is an initiative by the AFRL Aerospace Systems Directorate to mature critical fuel efficiency technologies and engine design features that could transition into legacy and next generation military combat aircraft.

P&W’s proposed AETD program will lead to demonstration testing of an advanced high pressure ratio core in late 2015, to be followed in 2016 by full engine testing of a three-stream adaptive fan and three-stream compatible augmentor and exhaust system. The introduction of the third flow path stream will allow the engine operating conditions and resultant bypass ratio to be modulated to optimize performance across all power settings and flight conditions. This will significantly reduce total fuel consumption across multiple missions.

Click here to read Pratt & Whitney's press release.

Coverage:

• 6th Gen Engines - Pratt In, Rolls Out, GE Stays On (Aviation Week: Ares Blog)
• U.S. taps Pratt to pen fuel-efficient warplane motor (Hartford Business Journal)
• GE, P&W selected to build fuel-efficient military engine demonstrators (Flight International)

‘NASA X’ TV Show Features PurePower Engine, Technologies

NASA TV is featuring the PurePower® engine and its technologies as part of the premiere episode ("Environmentally Responsible Aviation") of its new "NASA X" program. NASA interviewed Paul Adams, senior vice president, Operations & Engineering; Alan Epstein, vice president, Technology & Environment; and Michael Winter, chief engineer, Technology, in East Hartford, Conn.

The focus of the PurePower section of the program is Pratt & Whitney's research work on high bypass jet engines with the NASA Glenn Research Center for basic technologies P&W will develop for the second generation of Geared Turbofan™ engines.

Learn more about the "NASA X" program on its Facebook page. 

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Propulsion Powers Atlas V Upper Stage, Placing Critical Government Satellite into Orbit

[Video Credit: SpaceVidsNet, via YouTube]

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and RD AMROSS successfully propelled a critical U.S. government satellite into orbit on Sept. 13, once again demonstrating the consistency and reliability of their rocket launch propulsion systems.  The spacecraft launched from Vandenberg Air Force Station in California on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.  The Atlas V is powered by the RD AMROSS RD-180 booster engine, and the upper-stage is powered by the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RL10 engine.

The Atlas V Centaur upper-stage is powered by a single RL10A4-2 engine that delivers 22,300 pounds of thrust.  The Atlas V Common Core booster is powered by the RD-180 engine and delivers nearly 1 million pounds of thrust.  The RD-180 is fueled by a kerosene/liquid oxygen mixture, provides an environmentally-clean operation, and uses an extremely efficient, high-pressured staged combustion cycle.  The high-pressure helium storage tanks on the Atlas V booster and upper stage were manufactured by ARDE, Inc., located in Carlstadt, N.J., a division of Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne.

Click here to view the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne press release.

Click here to view the United Launch Alliance press release. (Page includes a photo gallery.)

Coverage:

• Top-secret satellite is launched from Vandenberg (Los Angeles Times)

Pratt & Whitney Global Service Partners Names Metal Technology Co. Ltd. Designated Service Provider for JT8D Engine Repairs

Pratt & Whitney Global Service Partners and Metal Technology Co. Ltd. (MTC) have signed an agreement to establish MTC as a designated service provider for Pratt & Whitney JT8D engine part repairs.

Under the long-term agreement, MTC will perform high pressure turbine/low pressure turbine blade and vane repairs for Pratt & Whitney JT8D engines at its Narita, Japan-based facility.

Click here to read the Pratt & Whitney press release. 

Coverage:

• Pratt picks Tokyo firm to fix engines (Hartford Business Journal) 

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Propulsion Powers Atlas V Upper Stage, Placing Radiation Belt Storm Probes into Orbit

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and RD AMROSS successfully propelled the Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) mission into orbit, once again demonstrating the consistency and reliability of their rocket launch propulsion systems. The mission launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. The Atlas V is powered by the RD AMROSS RD-180 booster engine, and the upper-stage is powered by the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RL10 engine. RD AMROSS LLC is a joint venture of Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and NPO Energomash.

Built and managed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, the RBSP includes two spacecraft designed to fly in elliptical orbits to study the planet’s radiation belts and help scientists better understand the sun’s influence on the Earth and near-Earth space. The mission is part of NASA’s Living with a Star Geospace program to explore fundamental processes that operate throughout the solar system, in particular those that generate hazardous space weather effects near the Earth and phenomena that could affect solar system exploration.


The Atlas V Centaur upper-stage is powered by a single RL10A4-2 engine that delivers 22,300 pounds of thrust. The Atlas V Common Core booster is powered by the RD-180 engine and delivers nearly 1 million pounds of thrust.

Click here to read the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne press release.

Click here to read the United Launch Alliance press release.

Coverage:

• NASA twin satellites to probe mysteries of the Van Allen belts (CNET News)
• Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne's RL10 engine propels RBSP mission into orbit (Zecco)