Page 32 - AAA SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2018 Online Magazine

materials such as composite fan blades only powerplant for the Boeing’s 737 MAX, while the LEAP-1C

and case, titanium aluminide low-pressure is the sole Western powerplant for COMAC’s C919 jetliner.
turbine blades, etc and CFM achieved two LEAP-1A engines power 5 percent of all A319neos, 27 percent
important milestones in July, when the in-ser- of all A320neos and 5 percent of all A321neos for a market
vice LEAP fleet crossed 1.5 million engine share of 63 percent for the European built single-aisle jetliner.
flight hours and 1,000th LEAP engine was CFM International’s parent companies, GE Aviation and Safran
delivered. Up to 1,200 LEAP engines are Aircraft Engines, launched the LEAP-X engine program just over
planned for delivery this year as compared to a decade ago and backlog of orders for LEAP has crossed over

450 last year. The worldwide LEAP engine 15,450 engines.
fleet is now logging more than 200,000
flight hours per month and 100,000 flight MRO Growth

cycles, and aircraft powered by the LEAP ainline Maintenance Repair & Overhaul (MRO) pro-
engine are operating on an average of ten viders are also closely observing the performance of
hours per day, every day. The number of the new engines in various operating environments
LEAP engines in service by 2021 (5 years Mand looking to identify potential engine maintenance
after entry into service), will surpass the total opportunities in the future. MRO firms will seek to benefit from
number of CFM56 engines that were deliv- their tie-ups with their parent companies and will need to con-
ered in its first 25 years of airline service. tinue to invest heavily in Research and Development (R&D),
The LEAP-1A is one of the engine options if they are to take away a sizeable slice of the engine main-
for the Airbus A320 new engine option (neo) tenance pie, away from larger firms. MRO providers are now
and Virgin America became the launch cus- also developed a range of integrated leasing and asset
tomer in June 2011. The LEAP-1B as the management solutions as customers are increasingly look-
ing for “one-stop service solutions” that cover MRO and
comprehensive related services – both on newer and
older engines – with the goals of further reducing cost and
maximizing asset values. MRO firms will also need to cater
for the potential disruptive effect of additive manufacturing to
their industry, as they will reduce the complexity of many parts
that go on the airplane. As an example, a 3D-printed fuel nozzle
used to spray fuel inside a LEAP engine was developed by GE
Aviation and brought into mass production in 2016. This com-
plex part which is the size of a walnut, was earlier made from
20 different components but are now printed as a single piece
using additive manufacturing. Oerlikon and Lufthansa Technik
are already working together to establish robust and repeatable
processes for additive manufacturing (AM) in the aircraft MRO
industry. The partnership of the two companies is an important

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