{"id":171464,"date":"2010-01-12T12:25:34","date_gmt":"2010-01-12T17:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.wsj.com\/environmentalcapital\/2010\/01\/12\/full-throttle-pws-newest-greenest-jet-engine\/"},"modified":"2010-01-12T12:25:34","modified_gmt":"2010-01-12T17:25:34","slug":"full-throttle-pw%e2%80%99s-newest-greenest-jet-engine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/171464","title":{"rendered":"Full Throttle: P&W\u2019s Newest, Greenest Jet Engine"},"content":{"rendered":"

The aviation business is perennially in the spotlight for its role in greenhouse-gas emissions: Jets burn tons of fuel at high altitudes. So far, much of the focus on next-generation aviation technology has landed on big, high-profile planes, such as Boeing\u0092s Dreamliner<\/a> or Airbus\u0092 A380, and all the fancy gimmicks they incorporate to reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions.<\/p>\n

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But the real battleground for aviation over the next two decades could play out among smaller, regional jets–100-plus seat planes that play an increasingly large role in air transportation in the U.S., Latin America, and Asia.<\/p>\n

That\u0092s the target market for Pratt & Whitney\u0092s newest jet engine, the Pure Power PW1000G<\/a>, which will be fitted to the latest regional jets from Bombardier and Mitsubishi in 2013 and 2014. The new engine is \u0093the biggest step in engine technology since the 747,\u0094 says Alan Epstein, P&W\u0092s vice-president for Technology and Environment and a 30-year veteran of MIT.<\/p>\n

The new P&W engine, which garnered Popular Science\u0092s \u0093Best of What\u0092s New\u0094 award<\/a> last year, promises to cut fuel consumption by between 12% and 15%. That by itself is good news for carriers wracked by high oil prices. But lower fuel consumption also means fewer carbon emissions. The engine also cuts down engine noise, which means the new planes could operate from more airports with strict environmental standards.<\/p>\n

P&W\u0092s engine marks a departure from traditional turbofan engines used in jets: It has a big, 250-pound gear in the middle of it. That means it can use a bigger fan in the front, generate a lot more thrust, and still cut fuel consumption. The redesigned engine also has fewer, lighter parts than traditional engines. The company says that can cut maintenance costs by $1.5 million annually per plane. <\/p>\n

P&W, a unit of United Technologies, is banking on the engine\u0092s efficiency to become a big selling point with regional-jet makers; Bombardier alone expects to sell 6,300 new 100-to-150 seat aircraft over the next twenty years.<\/p>\n

Just in case, though, the Obama administration is helping out: P&W got one of the biggest awards, worth $110 million in clean-tech manufacturing tax credits, from the $2.3 billion announced<\/a> by the White House Friday, to retool its factory to produce the new engine.<\/p>\n

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The aviation business is perennially in the spotlight for its role in greenhouse-gas emissions: Jets burn tons of fuel at high altitudes. So far, much of the focus on next-generation aviation technology has landed on big, high-profile planes, such as Boeing\u0092s Dreamliner or Airbus\u0092 A380, and all the fancy gimmicks they incorporate to reduce fuel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":761,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-171464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/761"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171464\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}