Airbus’ A320neo flight test program remains a source of interest. Tracking the program we note that the P&W powered airplane is not flying, but has resumed ground testing. Airbus tells us “it will fly in the coming weeks” and is doing ground tests now.
Meanwhile the LEAP engined A320neo kept building hours. In its second month the LEAP engine has already achieved a third of the A320neo GTF flight hours to date. Meanwhile the P&W PurePower engine family has built over 5,000 flight hours.
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Leap 1, PurePower 0… to bad orders aren’t like this.
Thanks for the update on the progress of the Airbus Neo. Here in Canada there was a lot of bad press when the Cseries had the incident with the GTF, Airbus seems immune to bad press from this side of the pond, i just hope this is not double standard. The quote ” in the coming weeks” seem to be accepted when not knowing.
I think in retrospect, Bombardier realize that they should have been more forthcoming with their GTF incident, as their lack of transparency did nothing but fuel speculation. They should have said directly that a fire erupted in an engine, there was an uncontained failure, structural damage to the wing, et cetera. Combined with rumors on slower than expected control law development, a non-functioning iron bird, and other rumors on liquidity and so forth, analysts and media representatives could not pass up on reporting the story. Today, Bombardier probably realizes this.
Airbus suffered a bird strike, which they commented on the same day. As PW engineers borescoped the engine, they noticed that clips that hold a seal exhibited more than expected thermal wear, and concluded that the clips did not receive proper temperature treatments in manufacturing. The latter development was communicated with aviation reporters within weeks. There was never any fire, uncontained engine failure, or any structural damage to the aircraft. PW-neos are presently doing ground runs, so a return to flight seems quite imminent. Because of the transparency, rumours aren’t circulating.
Airbus transparency concerning the event you are mentionning on the GTF seems quite minor compare to BBD. There was some changes that was more than minor, work done by PW, so Pratt AND Bombardier release informations comcerning the event as to give details and to manage the crisis without damaging one’s reputation or pointing fingers as to who’s to blame.