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Aviation History
1991
1991 - 1240.PDF
TECHNICAL: PROPULSION GMA3007 due to run in June BY GRAHAM WARWICK IN INDIANAPOLIS Allison plans to run its GMA3007 turbofan for the first time in June. The 32kN (7,2001b-thrust) engine has been selected to power Cessna's Citation X business jet and the Embraer EMB-145 regional jet. Rig testing of the GMA3007's wide-chord fan has passed 125h and a third series of tests is being planned to assess bird- strike and foreign-object inges tion tolerance, says Al Novick, Allison's director of large com mercial engines. The engine is scheduled to ily in the second half of 1992 — at Cessna on a Citation 111 teslbed and on Embraer's first EMB-145 (if the financially troubled man ufacturer proceeds with de velopment of its 45-seater). The Mach 0.9-cruise, 6,100km-range (3,300nm) Cita tion X is scheduled to fly in March 1993, says Cessna. The GMA3007 will be derated to 28.4kN on the Brazilian re gional jet and to 26.7kN on the US business jet. Deliveries of the Citation X, launched in October 1990, are scheduled to begin in June 1995. Allison is discussing other applications for the engine — a derivative of its 4,600kW (6,200shp) T406 turboshaft for the Bell Boeing V-22 tiltrotor — with at least two regional- aircraft and two business- aircraft manufacturers. The for mer could include Deutsche Aerospace and Japanese Aircraft Development, while the latter are thought to be British Aero space, on a BAe 1000 develop ment, and Dassault, on a Falcon GE resumes -5C2 testing Flight testing of the CFM International CFM56-5C2 turbofan has resumed at the General Electric (GE) flight test site at Mojave Airport in California. Sixty-five flight test hours of a planned lOOh test programme have been completed, with the engine mounted on the inboard No 2 position on GE's Boeing 707 testbed. The 139kN (31,2001b-thrust) -5C2 engine is being developed to power the Airbus A340 and is due to be certified in October to coincide with the first flight of the four-engined airliner. The Mojave test programme is due to finish at the end of July and GE says results so far show that the engine is "very close to its specific fuel consumption [sfc] targets". Ground test runs, con cluded earlier this year, brought the engine to within 1% of the sfc requirements. The engine differs from ear lier CFM56 variants by having a longer bypass duct, new ex haust mixer, a bigger (1.8m- diameter) fan, a four-stage low- pressure (LP) compressor and improved core and LP turbine. The engine is also being con sidered as a re-engining candi date for the llyushin 11-86 and technical integration studies have been completed. Despite this, the programme has appar ently stalled because Aeroflot, the Soviet airline, has failed so far to secure financing from Western backers. GE plans to begin flight tests of the CF6-80E1 aboard its A300 testbed next month and plans to acquire a Boeing 747 for GE90 testing. • 2000 derivative. The basic engine can produce 25-30% more thrust from the same, 98cm- diameter fan, says Novick, and up to 49kN with a new fan. The US engine manufacturer is studying the feasi bility of a 62kN- plus GMA3014 de rivative suitable for proposed 100-seat regional jets, Novick confirms. The GMA3007 shares its core and Lucas Aerospace full- authority digital engine-control system with Allison's T406 and its turboprop derivative, the GMA2100, selected to power the Swedish Saab 2000 and In donesian IPTN N-250 regional airliners. The company is also discuss ing additional civil and military applications of its GMA2100, believed to include the llyushin 11-114 twin-turboprop regional airliner and a revamped Das sault Atlantique. •Allison has tested an ultra- high-temperature turbine, gen erating what the company claims are record-breaking en gine inlet temperatures "in ex cess of 480°C". The tests were performed under the Expendable Turbine Engine Concept (ETEC) pro gramme, sponsored by the Tur bine Engine Division of the US Air Force Aero Propulsion and GMA30007 fan measures up to expectations Power Directorate of the Wright Laboratory at Wright Patterson AFB. ETEC is part of the De partment of Defense's Integrated High-Performance Turbine En gine Technology initiative. The high temperatures were generated during running in conditions simulating M3.5 and 90,000ft (27,300m) altitude, over a period of lh 36min, at varying engine thrust levels from idle to maximum-rated power. Allison says the high- temperature-running capability is a result of the engine's Lamil- loy hot section. Lamilloy is a quasi-transpirational cooling system in which the material is kept cool by the passage of air under pressure through porous walls. In effect, the material is amde to sweat air to keep cool. The company says a deriva tive of the demonstrator engine could be used for supersonic turbojet missile or unmanned air vehicle propulsion. • JT8D hushkits achieve Stage 3 levels BY KIERAN DALY Pratt & Whitney (P&W) and Nordam say flight tests of their hushkit for JT8D-powered Boeing 737s show that the air craft will be able to achieve Stage 3 noise levels. The engine manufacturer says the kit, scheduled for certifica tion late this year, will allow Stage 3 for 737-200s with JT8D- 7, -9, -15 or -17 engines at weights in excess of 55,400kg and with full 40' landing flap. Ted McCance, of P&W's JT8D noise programme, says the first phase of flight tests with a prototype hushkit yielded a cu mulative 19dB noise reduction. The US Federal Aviation Ad ministration's noise-calculation method allows aircraft to exceed Stage 3 in one or more of the three measured conditions — take-off sideline, cutback and approach — provided it meets the limits cumulatively. McCance says that, with the current kit, the aircraft would be quieter than required on approach, above the limit dur ing cutback and fractionally below it on take-off. The major customer so far is Lufthansa, which requires Stage 3 only at 52,200kg take-off gross weight, and McCance claims that, at that weight, the hushkitted aircraft will defi nitely meet all three conditions without trades. • 16 PLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 15-21 May, 1991
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