The world of commercial aviation propulsion is in the midst of change, upheaval and dramatic new developments. Aviation Week’s senior editor Guy Norris recently visited General Electric, Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce to see first-hand the production ramp ups and developments of new turbofans about to enter service. Listen in as he discusses his behind-the-scenes visit.
Michael Watkins (see photo) has been appointed director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and vice president at Caltech. Watkins served as mission system manager for the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover. He succeeds Charles Elachi, who is retiring and will move to the Caltech faculty.
For big production increases, including for the PW1000G, Pratt is investing in manufacturing initiatives such as “intelligent” or automated production cells and advanced materials.
Certification criteria for new aircraft include protecting against the ice crystal phenomena, the culprit in a significant number of incidents and accidents, but what about legacy aircraft?
As GE readies for a series of new campaigns culminating in flights of the GE9X in 2017, it is feeling the operational benefit of changes made to cope with a set of simultaneous test efforts, which hit an all-time record in 2015.
Rolls-Royce’s Trent 1000 TEN is designed to improve fuel burn by 2% over the current Package C production standard and is therefore crucial to the company’s long-term competitiveness battle against GE’s GEnx-1B, the alternate engine for the 787.
DEFENSE Saab hopes to fly its JAS 39E Gripen by the end of 2016 following rollout of the first of three single-seat test aircraft on May 17. Brazil will use two test aircraft, including one two-seat JAS 39F for which it leads development. Saab continues to offer the Gripen C/D as a lower-cost option.
Alexandre de Juniac's nomination to be the next IATA director general may have had full support from the board of governors, but the appointment is still contentious.
NASA is using data it has collected from orbit and the Martian surface to seek “exploration zones” that encompass all of the features that would make up a successful human mission—a safe landing zone near water supplies that could be mined for oxygen and rocket propellant.
Rolls-Royce’s Advance engine demonstrator is a hybrid combining a Trent XWB-84 case, the fan system from a Trent 900 and the low-pressure turbine from a Trent 1000.
Even the most successful hub operators with well-distributed risk and access to fast-growing markets and government backing are not immune to turmoil in key business segments.
