Airbus announced that its A320neo, powered by Pratt & Whitney PurePower® engines, has received joint Type Certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
“Today’s announcement marks a significant milestone for the Airbus and Pratt & Whitney team,” said Greg Gernhardt, president, Pratt & Whitney Commercial Engines. “We initiated our partnership on the A320neo in December 2010 with the goal of helping our mutual airline customers continuously improve aircraft performance and operating economics. Pratt & Whitney is proud that the PurePower engine is the launch engine on the A320neo and will contribute to more than 16 percent fuel burn savings when airlines enter into service. We continue to work closely together to support aircraft deliveries to customers as they embark on a new age in aviation.”
Airbus announced Pratt & Whitney’s award-winning PurePower Geared Turbofan™ engine as an engine option for its A320neo family on Dec. 1, 2010. Five years later, the Geared Turbofan engine’s ground-breaking technology will meet or exceed commitments on fuel burn, noise and emissions at customer delivery. The three A320neo flight test aircraft with Pratt & Whitney PW1100G-JM engines successfully accumulated over 1,070 flight hours in some 350 flights. The PurePower engine family has accumulated more than 26,000 hours of testing, including 42,000 cycles, on more than 80 test engines.
That’s a LOT of real life testing right there. Meanwhile, we know very little of the secretive LEAP engines. We can’t see them at airshows, we can’t hear how much noise they generate, nothing… We just hear whatever the marketing department says. There’s something Dilbert about it.