Page 18 - AAA JULY - AUGUST 2016 Online Magazine

FEATURE ENGINES

40 airlines. RRs focus in 2015 was completing are enabling our operations, partners and capabilities offered to customers. The 24/7
the development and testing of the new suppliers to dramatically reduce cycle time Fleet Support Center which operates from
widebody engines; Trent 1000 TEN and the while improving quality,” says David Joyce two locations, one in the U.S.A and one in
Trent XWB-97. Key programmes, for RR are in GE’s annual report for 2015. “our most China, is tasked with monitoring data from
the Trent 1000 TEN, the Trent 7000 and the sophisticated turbine blade design concepts some 35,000 GE and CFM engines operating
Trent XWB-97, which are due to enter service are now on test in two weeks, not the nine worldwide, processing in excess of 100
in 2017 and 2018 respectively. The new Trent months it once required, thanks to rapid million flight records per year, a figure that
XWB-97 engine made its first test flight in prototyping and 3D printing. GE’s Digital is rapidly growing with the introduction of
November 2015 and is undergoing a rigorous Twin, is touted by the company as the, “killer new engines like GEnx and CFM LEAP that
test programme under various conditions. app” for the Industrial Internet. A software have significantly more sensors than legacy
The new Trent 7000 is scheduled to enter model of a physical asset or process, the engines. For Fleet Support, the Predix
into service in 2017 on the A330neo and will Digital Twin was used to increase fleet platform replaces a legacy database system
see RR as the sole source engine provider availability on the GE90 engine, saving that dates back to the mid-1980s. The legacy
for the airplane as compared to the A330, on tens of millions of dollars in unnecessary system required lots of manual intervention
which there were three engine providers. The service overhauls. The company is targeting for fleet monitoring, while with Predix, data
Trent 1000 TEN has also completed several a position as a top 10 software company by integration is far more sophisticated and
major milestones and will be available on the 2020, with the Predix, cloud-based operating combines several data sources for more
787 from 2017. RR engines have already been system, which was launched in the second accurate prediction.
selected for 42 per cent of the 787s current half of 2015. By the end of 2016, GE expects
order book. to have 200,000 assets under management,
100 GE applications and 20,000 developers
The Digital Revolution creating many more applications for Predix. All aero engine manufacturers
GE has moved substantially ahead in the GE is unique in developing its own operating are now expanding their Big Data
application of data analytics and new system. GE Aviation’ s Fleet Support team expertise. Pratt & Whitney’s
digital technologies to advance its own is already utilising Predix to capture a Fleet Management Programs
operations. “Digital design tools, additive higher volume of engine data have it more use Big Data deliver customer
value through predicting future
manufacturing, advanced automated quickly and accurately analysed resulting maintenance and extending engine
machining and advanced inspection, all in significant improvement in diagnostic time on wing
18 ASIAN AIRLINES & AEROSPACE JULY/ AUGUST 2016 WWW.GBP.COM.SG/AAA