P&WC FAST Solution To Help Reduce Costs, Increase Availability And Enable More Planned “Data-Driven” Maintenance Environment

The FAA and EASA have certified Pratt & Whitney Canada’s turnkey FAST (Flight, Acquisition, Storage and Transmission) engine prognostics solution for PT6A engine-powered Beechcraft King Air B200 and B300 series of aircraft, bringing new levels of data-driven engine health management to one of the most popular aircraft of its kind in the world. Through deep engine insight provided by the FAST solution, P&WC will help Beechcraft King Air customers optimize maintenance planning, reduce costs and pilot workload, as well as improve aircraft availability.

“The FAST solution is one of a number of ways we are helping customers move toward our ultimate goal of a more fully planned maintenance environment,” says Tim Swail, Vice President, Customer Programs, P&WC. “We have delivered over 6,000 Diagnostics, Prognostics and Health Management systems, including the FAST solution, across all segments and are seeing increasing demand for FAST technology and its prognostics capabilities. We now have the FAST solution certified for the PT6A-140A-powered Caravan EX and the PT6A-powered King Air B200/300 series. We are in active discussions with several OEM’s and working on additional certifications to bring this capability across the PT6 engine family.”

P&WC continues to enhance engine and aircraft “connectivity” through its ability to provide customers with rapid insight and situational awareness about engine and aircraft health, usage and trends. The FAST solution automates the capture and analysis of a wide range of full-flight engine and aircraft parameters and can provide wireless access to encrypted and secure FDR data minutes after the pilot shuts down the engine.

Unlike many avionics systems, which still require manual intervention to off-load data from the aircraft, the FAST solution enables wireless transmission and the ability to capture complete mission data – from engine start to shut down. Once provided with this comprehensive full-flight data, P&WC is able to analyze and share it with customers and maintenance crews so they can more quickly have meaningful information about their engine and aircraft at their fingertips.

To date, more than 1,100 FAST solutions have been delivered across all platforms. In addition to the certification of the FAST solution for the Beechcraft King Air B200 and B300 series, as well as PT6A engine-140-powered Cessna Grand Caravan EX aircraft, the FAST solution provides deep engine insight on P&WC-powered business jets, regional airliners, helicopter and general aviation platforms.

(Source: P&WC media release. Image from file)

FMI: www.pwc.ca