For pilots, flight crew and maintenance staff, aero engine is the heart of the plane, to be diligently studied and lovingly handled, their every parameter carefully monitored and the slightest sign of distress investigated without delay

Oil is back in focus after a brief lull. The International Energy Agency recently warned, “Oil prices are entering a dangerous zone for the global economy. This is a wake-up call to the oil-consuming countries and to the oil producers.” What about the transportation industry, especially aviation, so heavily dependent on oil to keep its powerful engines humming?

Most passengers know little about aero engines—except that they lie hidden in nacelles and make a big noise. For pilots, flight crew and maintenance staff, they are the heart of the plane, to be diligently studied and lovingly handled, their every parameter carefully monitored, the slightest sign of distress investigated without delay.

Last November, a Qantas A380 suffered a near-disastrous uncontained engine failure making the Rolls-Royce Trent 972 engine a household name. Fortunately, for other customers awaiting the Airbus A380 (Kingfisher Airlines has five on order) it also comes with Engine Alliance’s GP7270 variant. Indeed, it’s the fashion to offer customers two or more options on engines. And designers are obsessed with constantly improving engine safety and reliability besides coaxing out the last bit of fuel-efficiency, saving every drop of oil. This mollifies the environmentalists somewhat.

What made waves worldwide was last month’s tentative order by LCC IndiGo for 150 Airbus A320 jets with more fuelefficient advanced turbofan engines. The A320neo actually has two options—Pratt & Whitney’s (P&W) PurePower PW1100G geared turbofan (GTF) engine or the Leap-X from CFM International. P&W’s 1100G technology is new, its geared architecture allowing the front fan to spin three times slower than the core, which optimises the speed of each section of the engine. The Leap-X builds on existing technology with a two-stage high-pressure turbine driving a 10-stage high pressure compressor; its low-pressure turbine blades are produced using ceramic matrix composite. Airbus claims either engine should yield a 15 per cent improvement in fuel savings—good news for IndiGo whether it sticks to the tried and tested CFM offering or takes a leap of faith with the GTF. IndiGo’s 39 existing A320-200s (+61 on order) are powered by International Aero Engines (IAE) V2500 power-plants. Kingfisher too has 23 A320-200s, with 67 on order, powered by the same engines. Ultimately around 4,000 A320neo airliners may be built over the next 15 years, so although IndiGo’s planes are scheduled for delivery only from 2016 onwards, the favoured engine manufacturer will have first-mover advantage. A320s will continue to be available with the existing CFM56-5B or IAE V2500 engines.