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Aviation History
1999
1999 - 1372.PDF
THE CFM56 STORY Boeing breakthrough - the CFM56-3 CFMI cured early problems with the CFM56-5, such as susceptibility to hail and ice ingestion, restoring confidence in the 13 7. Sales of the "Classic" later The CFM56-3 passed the redesign hurdle, however, and received joint FAA/DGAC certi fication on 12 January, 1984. The milestone coincided with the appointment of Jacque Chausse as president and chief executive, suc ceeding Rossignol. Chausse had been general manager of FAMAT (Fabrications Mecaniques de l'Atlantique), a start-up GE-Snecma satellite manufacturing plant, but had spent most of his l,300h of flight tests. The first aircraft for the two launch customers, USAir and Southwest, were handed over on 28 and 30 November, respectively. Southwest innaugurated services with the type between Dallas and Houston on 7 December, while USAir introduced the 737- 300 on to its Pittsburgh-Harrisburg route on 18 December. The most important new chapter in the history of the CFM56 had begun. from Piedmont Airlines. The -3 B1 turbofan, by this time, was exhibiting an impressive 99.9% dispatch reliability rate and acheiving an engine-caused shop visit rate of just 0.043 per 1,000 engine hours. The 737-400 featured a 3.05m fuselage stretch and offered a series of higher optional maximum take-off weights (MTOW) up to 150,0001b. Aircraft above 142,5001b MTOW I "They were used to hearing about the early JT9D. They thought it would suck up garbage cans and flame out in crosswinds... it turned out to be a real workhorse" - Borge Boeskov Snecma career in manufacturing and produc tion positions at the Paris and Corbeil sites. On 24 February, 1984, the 737-300 made its maiden flight from Boeing's Renton site and flew for 2h 56min before landing at the nearby Boeing Field. Jim McRoberts, chief test pilot for the 737-300, said the aircraft was "quiet, smart and lovely to fly" and commented that it handled in a similar way to the -200. While flight tests continued, CFMI worked on the certification of the higher thrust -3B2 model rated at 22,0001b. This incorporated adjustments to the low-pressure turbine speeds and modifications of the power management and main engine controls. The first customer for the higher thrust engine was Pakistan International Airlines, one of the batch of new customers that had helped firm orders creep up to 124 since roll-out. Some of the new business was attracted by the early performance figures for the new airframe-engine combination, which was showing 21-25% fuel consumption advantage over the JT8D-powered 73 7-200. In addition, CFMI was promoting the expected reliability of the new engine based on the fig ures coming in from the CFM56-powered DC- 8 fleet. Chausse commented at the time that "after more than two-and-a-half years of rev enue service, the CFM56-2 has flown more than 1 million flight hours and is setting prece dents for remarkable reliability, with a dispatch reliability rate of 99.9%". The -3B2 variant was certified by the FAA and DGAC in July 1984 as flight testing contin ued on the 737-300. The aircraft received type certification on 14 November, after almost By 1985 Boeing's studies into an all-new 150- seater, the 7-7, had been dropped in favour of another derivative of the 737. This stretched version was to be called the 737-400 and, according to Boeing at the time, was an easy development to complement the -300 and "...tide the airlines over until the 1992 aircraft [the 7J7]". However, the 7J7 was also dropped eventually and the 737-400 effectively took its place in the Boeing line-up. Later that year, CFMI and Boeing got a fore taste of the phenomenal success that was to come with the CFM56-powered 737, when United ordered 110 -300s. Later that month, CFMI celebrated the delivery of the 1,000th engine - an event that many at both GE and Snecma thought on many occassions would never happen. Chausse said at the time: "To see the 1,000th CFM56 engine leave the factory gives me and all my associates in GE and in Snecma a real sense of achievement. Yet, it is perhaps more exciting to realise that the 1,000th engine milestone is still far from the midpoint of the production programme. CFMI currently has booked close to 2,300 engine orders, with a strong sense of optimism that there are many more to come." Significantly, the 1,000th engine was a CFM56-3, production of a record 325 of which was planned in 1986. The milestone coincided with logging of the 2 millionth engine flight hour, more than 1.8 million of which had been amassed on the CFM56-2. Further increases in production and hours became certain when Boeing launched launched the 737-400 on 4 June, 1986, with an order and options for 55 required strengthening to the overwing body structure, keel beam and wing leading edge, and beefed-up wheels and brakes. These resulted in a requirement for more engine thrust, so CFMI quickly adapted a new derivative, the -3C1 rated at 2 3,5 001b thrust. The engine later became the standard 737 "Classic" powerplant on die -300, -400 and shorter -500, which was launched on 2 0 May, 198 7, on the back of orders and options for 73 aircraft from four airlines. In 1988, with production ramping up to FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 19 - 25 May 1999
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