Page 13 - AAA NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2015 Online Magazine

fEATURE PRATT & WHITNEY

At maturity, the Pratt & Whitney
Geared Turbofan engine fleet
will be generating more than two
petabytes of data annually

information data from PW4000 100-inch
engines, has been expanded to encompass
similar data for all PW4000 engine
models. Pratt & Whitney is identifying
“A given Pratt & will airline collaboration opportunities to
Whitney engine will l ead optimise processes and develop critical
experience an inflight to an model performance metrics that will
event once in 100 years. increasingly proactive further progress the company’s learnings.
That’s an amazing statistic. And a delay and approach in maintenance planning The project, which targets PW4000
cancellation associated with that engine? and requirements. This intelligence can engines in service on widebody aircraft,
Once a year. Now, there are a lot of engines help operators optimise fleet operations and is the first step toward developing a
out there, a lot of aircraft, so it does happen. reduce maintenance costs. predictive model for anticipating and
But the engines are incredibly reliable and “In only one year, we have expanded preventing in-flight shutdowns and
incredibly safe,” says Matthew Bromberg, our capabilities in Big Data exponentially,” engine-related delays and cancellations.
president, Pratt & Whitney Aftermarket. says Bromberg. “Improving the “What we’re trying to do is expand
“But we want to do better. We want to performance of our engines and our forward-looking horizon to make
capture every parameter, from every engine, maintenance predictability are two critical those types of engine maintenance
every second.” components of optimising the value we events highly predictive and to start to
In one of the most successful give our customers.” move our discussion from a reactive to a
development projects to date, the predictive The project, which initially focused on proactive maintenance discussion,” says
model to monitor engine event performance, field operational data and system health Lynn Fraga, business analytics manager,
Pratt & Whitney Engine Services. “We’ve
developed a tool that proactively looks
PW4000 100-inch Engine Specs at these types of events and gives us an
Fan tip diameter: 100 in early warning and early detection on any
Length, flange to flange: 163.1 in potential fleet trends.”
Takeoff thrust: 64,500–70,000 lb
Flat rated temperature: 86°F Pratt & Whitney currently captures
Bypass ratio: 5.0 about 100 parameters at multiple
Overall pressure ratio: 32.0–35.4 snapshots through a given flight,
Fan pressure ratio: 1.75 Bromberg explains, but that number
Airplanes Powered: will grow when the next generation of
Airbus A330-300 commercial engines enters service. The
Airbus A330-200 Geared Turbofan engine will collect 5,000
Airbus A330-200/300 parameters continuously throughout a
flight, generating massive amounts of
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