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Aviation History
1987
1987 - 0035.PDF
The equal partnership of General Electric and Snecma has produced a best-selling civil turbofan, the CFM56. Graham Warwick reports on develop ments that will take the engine into the 1990s. CFM International is studying derivatives of its best-selling CFM56 turbofan producing from 18,5001b thrust for Boeing's 100-seat 737-1000 to 30,0001b thrust for Airbus Industrie's long-range four-engined A340. For current applications the CFM56 produces from 20,0001b to 25,0001b thrust. The General Electric/Snecma revenue- sharing partnership began 1987 having delivered 1,640 engines against an order- book for 2,940, with production running at 45 a month and orders still coming in. But CFMI entered the new year facing greater- than-ever competition, from International Aero Engines (IAE) with the V.2500 turbofan and now the very-high-bypass V.2500SF SuperFan, and from General Electric itself with the ultra-high-bypass Unducted Fan (UDF),'in which Snecma has taken a 35 per cent stake. CFMI plans to meet the threat from these more fuel-efficient engines by offer ing performance improvements across its range of engines and by emphasising the proven reliability and low maintenance costs of the CFM56. The traditionally higher maintenance burden of a new engine can quickly offset any fuel-burn advantage it has over a derivative engine, CFMI argues. A major milestone is expected in May, when CFM56s in airline and military service pass the 5-million-hour mark, accu mulated since entering service in April 1982. Almost 3 million of these hours will have been logged by CFM56-2s powering re-engined DC-8 Super 70s, recording a shop visit rate of 0 • ll/l,000nr, an inflight shutdown rate of 0-06/l,000hr, and a dispatch reliability of 99 • 78 per cent. Several of the shutdowns have been caused by aircraft fuel system problems, and not by the engines, says CFMI. The bulk of the remaining hours will have been logged by CFM56-3s which have powered Boeing 737-300s since December 1984, recording a shop-visit rate of 0-4/l,000hr, an inflight shutdown rate of only 0 • 009/l,000hr, and a dispatch reliability of 99-93 per cent.-CFMI is delighted with the shutdown rate, and expects the shop-visit rate to stabilise, along with that of the -2, at around 0-2/l,000hr. Now completed, the DC-8 Super 70 re- engining programme has been overtaken as the major application of the 22,000-24,0001b-thrust CFM56-2 by the US Air Force's KC-135R tanker re- engining programme, for which 696 engines are currently on order. The -2 also The latest CFM56-5 is performing well on flight- tests of the Airbus A320
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