Passing through the fifth anniversary of the A380, we spoke with Mary Ellen Jones, President of Engine Alliance about the company’s view on the A380 program, the VLA market in general and how EA sees the future of VLAs.
Ms Jones shares some interesting data points. EA has generated a 99.9% sustained dispatch reliability. In July their GP7200 engine passed through 1 million flight hours.
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Yrs ago I talked to a seasoned senior that had seen both the GP7200 and Trent900 during testing. His impresssion was that the GP7200 wasn’t as smooth as the T900, he could really see two competitors built it. Through the years I have got the impression the GP7200 is somewhat quieter and I see signs it might be a fraction more fuel efficient too. It seems the EA folks did a very good job afterall.
Big question IMO is how they are going to Catch up with the Trent XWB, GTF and GE9X technology/efficiencies. Depends largely on how GE and PW think about it. RR will move anyway..