How Pratt & Whitney's GTF Engine Grounded Hundreds of Planes
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How Pratt & Whitney's GTF Engine Grounded Hundreds of Planes

Pratt & Whitney's GTF engine has become one of the most talked about engines in the aviation industry due to its innovations and challenges. Designed for narrow-body aircraft, the internal combustion engine impressed with its efficiency: engineers managed to reduce fuel consumption by 20%, reduce noise by 75% and reduce emissions of harmful substances by 50%. However, technical difficulties left more than 650 aircraft on the ground, which was a serious blow to the company's reputation.

The introduction of a planetary gearbox made it possible to significantly lighten the engine, reduce the weight of the turbine, and reduce the number of its stages. But this technology turned out to be too difficult to operate. Problems with the quality of metals and turbine defects caused aircraft downtime. Despite this, the engine demonstrated a significant increase in efficiency.

This Pratt & Whitney development remains an interesting topic of discussion to this day, despite a number of problems. The creation of the engine prompted competitors to reconsider their own technologies, and the manufacturer continues to improve the highly controversial power plant. Want to know how the gearbox changed the approach to aircraft manufacturing and how the crisis ended? Watch the video on the YouTube channel "Aviasmotr".
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