News! - Airbus A320-251N LEAP by Peters Aircraft

[Stephen]

 

News! - Airbus A320-251N LEAP by Peters Aircraft

 

Airbus's latest generation of A320 series aircraft is the NEO or "New Engine Option" of this one of the most popular modern aircraft ever built. There are two new engine options with the Pratt&Whitney PW1100G and CFM's Leap 1A, and both engines use the geared turbine (GTF) technology to get large bonuses in performance, range and of course the ever wanting better fuel consumption by their airline customers. But it hasn't been a smooth sailing ride for both of either the engine manufacturers in this highly specialised geared turbine technology era. The PW1100G has easily outsold the Leap 1A with airline preferences going to the PW in a 10 to 1 ratio on orders. But the engine is already having durability issues. The Leap has had a far smoother EIS (Entry into Service), but this engine also has had issues with coatings on the ceramic matrix composite (CMC) shroud in the high-pressure turbine have shown parts of flaking off and again durability issues have raised their ugly heads. Both engine issues have delayed Airbus deliveries and airline operations over the last six months, but this is all a very high-technology front and with all new very ground breaking areas, you will always get issues of short-term pain, of course airlines won't hear of such things, but in reality it is the nature of the forward progressive technology to not always be totally perfect and completely reliable.

 

In X-Plane there is already a few aircraft with the PW1100G neo fitted and available with the JARDesign A320neo and Peters Aircraft A320-271 NEO PurePower Engine. Now Peters Aircraft have released the CFM's Leap 1A version on the same A320-251N airframe as his PW1100G version.

 

 

We are already very familiar with the the Pratt&Whitney GTF and the LEAP is in many ways very much the same in mostly the size of the 81 in (206 cm), 20 blade fan diameter on the P&W. The Leap 1A is only slightly smaller fan diameter at 78 in (198 cm) with a Bypass ratio (BPR) of 11:1 were as the P&W has a BPR of 12:1. 

 

Thrust is -1A versions 30, 32, 33, 35  - 143.05 kN (32,160 lbf) and the P&W GTF versions 4G/22G - 107.82 kN (24,240 lbf) and so the 1A engine is significantly more powerful.

 

 

 

One of the highlights is the Leap 1A sound. It is very different aurally from the P&W GTF and is excellent at engine startup and shutdown. There is no FMOD, but the sounds are high grade and overall are excellent and recorded from a real CFM Leap 1A engine.

 

 

Cockpit is unchanged from the P&W GTF except for the underlying new Leap performance numbers. Peters Aircraft does note that all aspects of their aircraft is focused on performance and handling of the actual aircraft. So you can be confident the performance numbers are very close to the original aircraft.

 

 

Lighting for X-Plane11 has been reworked and very nice it is, not totally adjustable as airbus cockpit lighting is complex, but still very good.

 

 

There are some really nice liveries as part of the Leap A320neo package. With a wide variety of fifteen airlines and three great Frontier logo aircraft. The Pegasus livery is default.

 

 

 

The aircraft is available in X-Plane11 and X-Plane10 or the package of both XP11/XP10 versions, which is an upgrade cost.

 

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Yes! the Airbus A320-251N LEAP by Peters Aircraft is NOW! Available from Peters Aircraft here :

 

Airbus A320-251N LEAP

 

Price is Euro €39.90 for the X-Plane11 version

_____________________________________________________________________________________   News by Stephen Dutton

4th December 2017

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