A320neo

All production standard engines now feature a damper on the third and fourth shaft bearings to help stiffen the shaft. “The engines we are building in the factory today are to this bill of material and the first 20 engines we built were not. With these 20 we have a plan with the customers to go back and modify them as needed,” says Leduc.

“We are basically going to be able to match rotor clearance, engine by engine. And we are going to do it with an algorithm that will have greater and greater fidelity over time. By the time we get to June, it will be down to 200 seconds for start time and by the time we get to December we will be down to 150 seconds for start time. It’s all about how much data we accumulate and the level of fidelity in the algorithm,” he adds.

Can we get below 150? Probably – but to be honest I’m not sure the operator cares. 150 is normal airport operations.” As for crew reaction, Leduc says Lufthansa’s pilots said “they love the engine, just fix the start time. That’s not bad for something that’s revolutionary.”

Pratt also says the PW1100G is the only one of the family that has exhibited the issue. “It’s kind of curious, and I’m not going to say it is the cause, but it is certainly an indicator. This is the only engine we had to core mount to the pylon. All the other engines we could fan mount,” says Leduc.

The new president also faces the critical challenge of steering Pratt’s production system through the largest ramp-up in its peacetime history. This will see deliveries of the PW1000G geared turbofan family go from around 20 in 2015 to 200 or more in 2016 and close to 1,400 by 2020.