Pratt & Whitney is investigating incidents of excessive vibration in its engines that power Airbus SE’s A320neo aircraft, the latest in a series of problems that have plagued the new turbine, according to people familiar with the matter.
The U.S. engine maker, a unit of Farmington, Connecticut-based United Technologies Corp., has yet to identify the cause and is assessing if there is a connection to prior design issues, the people said, asking not to be identified as the process isn’t public. Pilots have in some instances received alerts of high vibration levels during flights.
“Pratt & Whitney is working closely with our customers to support their operations while continuing to retrofit the fleet to the latest engine configuration,” the company said in an emailed response to questions from Bloomberg News.
A spokesman for Airbus declined to comment. The planemaker, based in Toulouse, France, has said that it still expects to meet its goal to deliver around 800 aircraft this year.
Problems with the new Pratt engines, and to a lesser extent a competing turbine from CFM International, have hobbled production of the latest generation of narrow-body planes from Airbus and U.S. rival Boeing Co. The setbacks, at a time when demand is surging, have turned what should be a boom time for planemakers and their suppliers into a period marred by aircraft groundings, safety warnings and extra costs.
Since May, Pratt has been increasing deliveries for the A320neo, a “re-engined” version of the single-aisle A320 designed to save airlines operating costs by reducing fuel consumption. The latest issue requires parts to be replaced more frequently, taking aircraft out of service for longer and reducing the pool of spare engines available to carriers, the people said.
Pratt is meeting with airlines and has started tests. These involve assembling the geared turbofan engine using combinations of old and new designs of faulty parts to help locate the root of the issue, according to one of the people.
The scale of the latest problem appears less disruptive than recent issues with the engine’s combustor, oil seal and knife-edge seal, the people said. Those issues, which triggered a three-month halt to production at the start of the year, have been resolved in new engines delivered by Pratt.
The company is still working through fixes for engines in existing A320neo fleets. Faulty knife-edge seals have been replaced, though all of the engines—including ones now being produced—will require a redesigned version to be installed later to address durability issues. Pratt is still catching up on upgrading in-service engines to fix the combustor and oil-seal problems.
