General Electric is building up for the start of the most frenetic test period in the development and certification of the GEnx engine for the Boeing 787 following the start of flight tests of the GEnx-1B64 on 22 February.

The test programme, which has already amassed more than 1,000h, is about to involve engine 003, which GE says will undertake vibration endurance test work at its Peebles outdoor test site in Ohio. Meanwhile, engine 006 is starting hail, water and bird-strike tests this month at Peebles. Last week, engine 007 started icing tests at GE's new portable icing facility in Mirabel, Canada.

This month the 150h block test is due to start - a certification requirement that involves cyclic operations at maximum (red line temperature) conditions - using engine 004. And late March will see the dramatic fan-blade-out test using engine 001, which was the first GEnx to run, in March last year.

Flight testing of engine 005 on GE's 747 flying testbed from Victorville, California is to continue until the end of May with a second round of tests due later this year. European Aviation Safety Agency engine certification is scheduled for the first quarter of 2008 and US Federal Aviation Administration FAR Part 25 aircraft certification for the GE-powered 787 for the second quarter.

Source: Flight International

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