Pratt & Whitney will resolve in a few weeks engine issues that led to the recent grounding of 11 Airbus A320neo planes in India, Pratt President Robert Leduc said Friday, adding the planes will be “back in the air” by the end of April.
It will cost Pratt $50 million to retrofit the problem engines, Leduc said, but added the East Hartford-based company will keep its delivery commitment to Airbus, the European builder of the planes involved.
Last weekend, India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation ordered the immediate grounding of planes that had been in service with IndiGo Air and GoAir, both Indian-based airlines, after several planes experienced in-flight engine shutdowns.
Pratt narrowed the cause of the problem to a small engine part called a “knife edge seal” in the high-pressure compressor on the rear hub of the PW1100G-JM engine. Leduc said Pratt is working to retrofit 55 of the engines with new parts to solve the issue.
Speaking at an analyst presentation by Pratt parent United Technologies Corp. in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, Leduc also said that the problems with the new engines boiled down to Pratt’s breaking its own rules about fully vetting new designs before they enter service.
“We did not get our durability testing done before we went into service,” Leduc said during a question-and-answer session.
“We got surprised,” he acknowledged, adding emphatically, “it will never happen again.”
Overall, Leduc said, “we are so much more than the GTF,” noting that Pratt will benefit in the long term from the GTF engine’s ability to deliver better fuel economy, lower air emissions, and quieter operation.
Moreover, he said, Pratt is on the verge of a huge surge in engine production overall because the company also is the exclusive supplier of engines for the Pentagon’s Joint Strike Fighter and two other aircraft under development.
Also at the analysts’ conference Friday, David Gitlin, president of UTC Aerospace Systems, or UTAS, said UTC’s planned $30 billion acquisition of Iowa-based Rockwell Collins is on track for completion “later this summer.”
Rockwell makes flight controls, aircraft interiors, and related products, while UTAS makes jet engine controls, aircraft landing gear, brakes, and similar equipment.
