Some of the chronic production problems with Pratt & Whitney’s next-generation jet engines were tied to a failure to follow two critical testing practices, the company’s president said Friday.
Bob Leduc, speaking to industry analysts at a Florida gathering of parent company United Technologies Corp., said the company failed to complete durability testing of its geared turbo fan engine and perform testing and measurement.
He was responding to a question about how analysts can feel comfortable that “another seal is not going to have a problem or something else isn’t going to have a problem.”
Pratt & Whitney did not perform durability testing before putting the engine into service, Leduc said. In addition, a problem with a seal was related to taking the supplier’s design at face value and failing to instrument it, or to build, test and revise it, “and I think we got surprised,” he said.
“It’ll never happen again. It will never happen again,” Leduc said. “We will not break those golden rules anymore.”
Asked if he feels comfortable if “most everything is behind you,” Leduc said he’s confident with the engine that Pratt & Whitney says is quieter and more fuel efficient than what’s made by competitors.
“I think I’ve got a really good motor now,” he said.
Greg Hayes, chief executive officer of UTC, said the Farmington conglomerate is laying out the details to industry analysts to be “open and honest and transparent.”
“There’s very few business leaders that stand up and say we screwed up an engineering change,” he said.
Pratt & Whitney has a backlog of 8,000 jet engines, promising tremendous profitability for years to come. But the chronic problems with production of the engine, involving a fan blade and seals, undermine UTC’s ability to persuade customers that the engine is trouble-free.
The most recent problem with Pratt & Whitney’s geared turbo fan engine occurred in February when a faulty seal on a compressor forced Airbus earlier this month to suspend delivery of its A320neo jet on IndiGo, the Indian low-cost airline and the plane’s biggest customer.
UTC, which also makes elevators and building systems such as heating and cooling and security equipment, has spent $10 billion to develop and build the engine.
