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Pratt & Whitney Media Day is this week, which is a perfect excuse to post this excellent BBC documentary of Rolls-Royce. (Editor: Eh?) Bear with me, please.

We are not suggesting it's appropriate only due to the fact we can find no comparable documentaries on Pratt & Whitney, and not even because we are enthralled by such a revealing look inside the typically buttoned-up on Rolls-Royce (motto: "No comment. Full-stop. Forever.")

It actually is a timely peek inside Rolls-Royce on the eve of a Pratt & Whitney media day, where surely a major theme of press conferences and interviews will be the newly-sealed long-term relationship between these propulsion giants on narrowbody turbofans.

If you recall, last October Pratt & Whitney agreed to buy Rolls-Royce's stake in the International Aero Engines (IAE) consortium, which also includes MTU and Japanese Aero Engines Corp, producing V2500s for Airbus A320s. At the same time, Rolls-Royce formed a new joint venture with Pratt & Whitney to challenge another powerful joint venture -- the General Electric-Safran partnership in CFM International -- for the next-generation single-aisle turbofan market.    

Today, perhaps more than ever, the future of Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce are tied closely together.

All that said, this documentary is so good any old excuse would do. Enjoy!
Japan Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner JA822J/N1003W ZA177

JAL take first (and second) 787 on March 25
Japan Airlines, second customer for the 787, will contractually take delivery of its first 787 on March 25 before a flyaway departure to Tokyo the following day. The final regulatory hurdle before delivery was cleared earlier this week when the Federal Aviation Administration gave final approvals to both the original Block 4 and PIP1 GEnx-1B engines. The two GEnx configurations will be interspersed among the early GE-powered 787 deliveries. 

There are strong indications that JAL will not take delivery of not one, but two 787s on Sunday, the program's first dual delivery. Delivery of Airplane 23 (JA822J) is firm at this point, while Airplane 33 (JA825J) may be slated for a late afternoon Monday flyaway as well, say program sources.

I'll be traveling to Seattle late Sunday for the delivery ceremonies and JAL interior unveiling on Monday.

Pratt & Whitney PW1500 certification trials
The PW1524G, Bombardier's CSeries CS100 engine, has begun major FAA certification trials with icing runs at the engine-maker Manitoba, Canada facility. Certification tests official began in mid-January with low pressure turbine stress tests. The engine has undergone more than 1,350h of full testing and nearly 250h under the wing of the company's Boeing 747SP test bed. As of last week, P&W had completed 2000h split between the PW1500G and MRJ's PW1200G engines covering more than 5,000 cycles. 

Trent 1000 reliability tops 99.9%
Five months after its introduction with All Nippon Airways, the Trent 1000 engine has topped a dispatch reliability of 99.9%, says Rolls-Royce. The engine-maker notes it is the best introduction of a new RR engine, which has flown more than 4,000h since its late October service entry.
Hazy Pane

SCOTTSDALE -- A busy first day at ISTAT is currently in the book and we had an opportunity to sit down with Air Lease CEO Steven Udvar-Hazy, who weighed in on a variety of topics. For a year-by-year comparison, make sure to re-read our interview with Udvar-Hazy from ISTAT 2011.

Air Lease Corp chief executive Steven Udvar-Hazy, a vocal advocate for Boeing's now-shelved New Small Airplane concept, says the airframer's strategy to develop the CFM International Leap-1B-powered 737 Max is intended as a bridge to a clean sheet design arriving in the middle of the next decade and "not a long-term solution".

A fierce battle is brewing between GE, Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney to supply as many as 3,000 engines to power the re-vamped Embraer E-Jet family.

Steven Udvar-Hazy, Air Lease Corp chief executive describes the three-way contest as "a real dogfight". He anticipates as many as 3,000 engines could be at stake through a sole-source contract to power the Embraer 198, the moniker given to the conceptual aircraft by ALC.

Lufthansa and Air Lease Corp (ALC) are vying for launch customer status on Boeing's proposed stretched 787-10X.

If Boeing moves ahead to "launch the airplane, we could be a definitive launch customer for the -10, in tandem with [ordering] some -9s. So that's in the oven," says Steven Udvar-Hazy, chief executive of ALC.

Photos Credit Boeing & Embraer
Emirates Boeing 777-300ER A6-EGO

The existence of a 2011 request for proposal to GE, Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney has now been officially confirmed, as Rolls and P&W have shared preliminary details of its planned 90,000 to 100,000lb thrust class engines to power Boeing's 777X concept.

General Electric, which is the exclusive engine supplier on the 777-300ER, -200LR and freighter, is offering the GE9X for Boeing's conceptual family.

This morning, Rolls detailed its conceptual engine, which it has dubbed the RB3025, exclusively to FlightBlogger and Flightglobal, which it touts will achieve better than 10% improvement in fuel burn against today's GE90-115B engine that powers the 777-300ER, and 15% better than the 777-200ER's Trent 800.
Rated at 99,500lbs with a 337cm (132.5in) fan for the baseline 407-seat 777-9X, giving the RB3025 a bypass ratio of 12:1.

The engine-maker says the current concept provides a low specific thrust and "excellent" propulsive efficiency, along with a 62:1 overall pressure ratio, which, if achieved, would be the highest OPR achieved in a commercial turbofan engine.

The engine builds off of the Trent 1000 and XWB engines, but Nuttall says the RB3025 is derived around its Advanced3 environmentally friendly engine (EFE) technology development programme, which includes a Trent 1000-derived core, lean-burn combustor, composite fan and advanced materials in the high pressure elements of the core.
Additionally, Pratt & Whitney also confirmed it, too, is offering a geared 100,000lb thrust class engine for the 777X in response to Boeing's information request:
Citing an excess of 6,000h and 80,000 cycles on its fan drive gear system (FDGS), P&W says its testing has "validated our analytical prediction that this engine architecture would be suitable to thrusts up to 100,000 pounds."

As the engine-maker "looks ahead to powering future wide-body applications" it plans to "scale the Geared Turbofan architecture to the required thrust levels".
While GE has not confirmed the details of its GE9X offering, the 777's incumbent has begun to begun to firm its own conceptual specifications to power the 777X, say those directly familiar with the engine-maker's planning.
Compared to the 115,000lb-thrust GE90-115B that powers the 777-300ER, the lower thrust 99,500lb and derated-88,000lb GE9X for the 777-9X and -8X, respectively, are enabled by the larger, higher-lift and comparatively lighter composite wing. The eCore-inspired engine would also feature a GEnx-style composite fan casing and third-generation Twin Annular Premixing Swirler (TAPS) Combustor, dubbed TAPS III, say those familiar with the engine maker's planning.

The 325cm (128in) diameter GE9X engine is believed to tout an approximately 10:1 bypass ratio, 60:1 overall pressure ratio and 27:1 high pressure compressor ratio, compared to the 42:1 and 23:1 pressure ratios, respectively, on today's GE90-115B.
Boeing says it's far too soon to say if one or more engine choices would be available on the 777X, as it has yet to be officially launched, but it appears that both Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney are readying for a significant battle with GE to power the next-generation 777.
Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner ZA236

US Federal Aviation Administration certification of the General Electric GEnx-1B-powered 787 is set to slide to early 2012 due to the lack of availability of a production aircraft to satisfy final regulatory requirements, sources confirm.

While Boeing has completed a portion of its extended operations (ETOPS) and functionality and reliability (F&R) testing on a Block 4 GEnx test aircraft ZA005 and ZA006, the FAA mandates a portion of the required 300h F&R campaign to be undertaken on a production aircraft.

Boeing and GE had intended to certify the Block 4 GE-powered 787 variant in the fourth quarter 2011.

Boeing declined to comment on the GEnx 787 certification schedule.

Boeing will employ Airplane 35 a GEnx-powered 787 for Air India as its confirming production article for testing, though the slow process of change incorporation has pushed the aircraft's first flight to the first half of December, sliding the completion of the FAA's Part 25 requirements.

The delay has pushed Air India's first delivery into 2012, after its latest schedule had it being delivered in the fourth quarter of 2011, already delayed from 2009.

The aircraft is expected to transition from the company's Everett, Washington factory to its flight test base at Boeing Field in Seattle later in December, say program sources.

ZA005 remains an active test aircraft, conducting flight tests of the GEnx-1B's first performance improvement package (PIP1), expected to deliver a 1.4% improvement in specific fuel consumption, due to an increase in the number of low pressure turbine (LPT) blades.

The Block 4 GEnx-1B engine configuration received FAA certification in March 2008, and the PIP 1 configuration was certified in August. A second PIP for the GEnx-1B is expected to achieve engine certification next year.

Test aircraft ZA006 is currently having its instrumentation removed in preparation for its coming relocation to Boeing's Global Services & Support facility in San Antonio, Texas for refurbishment.

Boeing has delivered two Rolls-Royce Trent 1000-powered 787s, both to All Nippon Airways and aims to deliver a combined 15 to 20 747-8s and 787 in 2011, two-thirds of which will be 787s.

The slow pace of aircraft change incorporation has continued to put pressure on Boeing's delivery schedule, with its internal planning showing five more deliveries in 2011. However, program sources caution that only one or two 787s for ANA will be ready for delivery before the end of December.
All Nippon Airways Boeing 787 Dreamliner N1006F ZA102

Six-hundred and six days after it first began on a cold and rainy December day, it's done. Mostly.

The certification flight trials for Boeing's first 787 variant were completed in the afternoon hours of August 13, rounding out a half-day's worth of testing that took ZA102 to Salt Lake City, Utah and Billings, Montana before returning to Paine Field in Everett.

It would be the last of the required certification flight testing required for the FAA's system functionality and reliability (F&R) testing, which began in late June.

On Sunday, ZA102 flew with a plane-load of passengers to put the the aircraft's IFE and environmental control systems to the test, with final F&R ground tests afterward, say program sources, a test for Boeing, not the FAA.

The Rolls-Royce Trent 1000-powered test fleet has flown nearly 3,800h since ZA001's maiden flight on December 15, 2009 and along with two General Electric GEnx test aircraft, visited 14* countries, and faced high altitudes, freezing and sweltering temperatures, high winds, water and one very important trial by fire.

The 20 months of testing, was significantly longer than the company's first planned eight months, at one point in late 2007 estimating that 787's certification would take as little as five, employing its 24h test methodology to fly 2,430 hours to certify the Rolls-Royce powered 787.

787FTpatch.jpg
Monday will likely bring the formal announcement by Boeing of the completion of 787's certification flight tests with Trent 1000 Package A engines.

While this first extraordinary chapter in the life of the 787's test program comes to a close, there are still major milestones left to secure, including final US and Japanese regulatory approval and certification of the airframe pairing with 70,000lb Trent 1000 Package B and General Electric GEnx-1B engines still being tested on ZA005 and ZA006, is expected later this year.

The first four deliveries to ANA will be powered by Package A engines and will live their lives rated at 64,000lbs of thrust for short and medium-haul international missions, before the Package B engines - which are being tested in Yuma by ZA004 - advance to within 1% of promised specific fuel consumption.

Notably the 1% SFC is for the engine only, and its yet unclear how close the updated engine gets to the aircraft-wide fuel burn target when integrated, though ANA has said the 787-8 is still capable of reaching to US East Coast from Japan, when they begin international operations in early 2012.

While the Package A certification is a crucial first step to establish the 787's base type certificate, the Package B and GEnx-1B certifications will clear the way for the next 823 ordered by the world's airlines.

*US, Canada, Iceland, UK, France, Poland, Japan, India, Bolivia, Peru, Germany, Norway, Netherlands, Ireland.
PAris-header2-FINAL_560.jpg

PARIS -- Aircraft lessor GE Capital Aviation services is set to announce an order for Boeing 747-8 aircraft at the Paris air show Tuesday, several industry sources confirm.

The order from GECAS is believed to be for two freighter aircraft, growing the backlog to 78 of the cargo variant.

GECAS becomes the second leasing customer for the 747-8, joining troubled Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, which has been challenged by the Dubai debt crisis. It is not known if the aircraft with an operator yet. 

GE is the sole engine supplier for the 747-8, with four GEnx-2B67 powering the updated jumbo.

Boeing announced orders for 17 747-8I aircraft during day one, split between two customers.





When I sat down to think about the remaining thirteen and a half weeks of 2010, it became immediately apparent how pivotal this time will be for the future of commercial and business aviation. Decisions from Boeing, Airbus, Embraer, Bombardier and Gulfstream will shape the industry in 2011 and 2012 in the near term, but these same decisions could guide commercial and business aerospace for the next decade to come.

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