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Aviation History
2001
2001 - 3615.PDF
BUSINESS AND GENERAL AVIATION ENGINE DEVELOPMENT GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC Latest P&WC turbofan set to power Dassault Falcon 7X corporate jet Changes to the newest member of the family include a swept-blade fan and low-emissions combustor technology The latest addition to Pratt & Whitney Canada's PW300 turbo- fan family, the PW307A, features new swept-blade fan and low-emis sions combustor technology. The engine, selected to power Dassault's Falcon 7X business trijet, will be developed using a method ology intended to increase matu rity at entry into service. The PW307A is a 6,1001b-thrust (27.1kN) growth version of the PW306 powering the Fairchild Dornier 328JET regional jet and Gulfstream 200 super mid-size business jet. It will also power the mid-size Cessna Citation Sovereign when it flies early next year. P&WC chief executive Gilles Quimet says Dassault's perfor- TURBOFANS GUY NORRIS/ PHOENIX Honeywell debates future engine plan Honeywell Engines & Systems will decide on the future of its FX next-generation turbofan plan early next year, after losing the competi tion to power Dassault's 7X business jet (formerly FNX). Honeywell plans to develop the FX family as a successor to the TFE731 -20/40/60 range, but covering a slightly greater thrust-range beyond 6,000lb (26.7kN). The company had based the highest thrust version, the FX-5, on Dassault's FNX requirements, but Honeywell is now debating the engine's viability following Dassault's choice of the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW307A. "We believe the market for the FX is there, so we are designing a product for tomorrow," says Honeywell's commercial propulsion busi ness development director, Victor Valente. As-yet-unspecified testing will continue, with testing on the high-pressure core, completed on 30 October. The search continues for a launch customer and a suitable first application. "There are plenty more fish in the sea," says Valente. mance targets for the Falcon 7X required an engine "between the PW306 and the PW308". The latter is the largest member of the PW300 family, a new-centreline engine developed to power the Falcon 2000EX large business jet and the super mid-size Raytheon Hawker Horizon. Changes introduced on the PW307A include the swept fan, increased core airflow, low-emis sions combustor, increased turbine capacity and a more efficient exhaust mixer. The result, says Quimet, is an engine with "extremely high performance, low fuel burn, emissions and noise, under the most stringent regula tions by a substantial margin". As a risk-sharing partner in Falcon 7X development, P&WC is responsible for the integrated propulsion system. This includes the nacelle and thrust-reverser to be supplied by European venture Macchi Hurel Dubois. Certification of the PW307A is scheduled for the end of 2004 and 7X certifica tion is planned for the first half of 2006. Swept-fan technology is under development for P&WC's PW625 small turbofan - the demonstrator of which completed its first run last week - and is running on a PW308 experimental engine, says Quimet. The Canadian company has com pleted critical birdstrike tests to ver ify the structural integrity of the design, which he describes as "a step forward for turbofans" in terms of efficiency and noise. The combustor will use technology being developed with sister com pany Pratt & Whitney, which allows better control of internal temperatures "and the lowest pos sible NOx [oxides of nitrogen] emissions", he adds. P&WC will apply its new mature engine reliability at service intro duction (MERSI) methodology to development of the PW307A. Under MERSI, "we do far more instrumented testing early on to determine the actual physical envi ronment in which the engine operates, then design tests that expand the environment and test the engine to failure, to really understand the margins", says Quimet. The goal is to identify and fix by-service-entry problems that usually emerge in the first few years' use. AMPHIBIANS Air shuttle service to be launched between Abu Dhabi and Dubai Emarat Link Aviation will launch an air shuttle service between the United Arab Emirates' two major cities, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, next month using two Pratt & Whitney PT6A-114A-pow- ered Cessna Caravan Amphibians. The 20-minute flight will sperate 12 times daily between boating terminals at each city and he aircraft will be configured vith nine seats. A similar service vas launched three years ago, 'ut was withdrawn due to a lack I demand. Emarat Link Aviation chairman Mohamed bin Thaaloob says that he believes there to be sufficient demand now among the business- communities of each city. He adds that that service will be extended to other Emirates, such as Fujairah and to Oman, if demand is strong. • Saudi Arabian Cessna distribu tor Wallan Aviation has sold a Citation Excel and a Citation Bravo to unnamed Saudi cus tomers in deals worth a total of $14 million. FRACTIONAL OWNERSHIP Net Jet takes first of 11 BBJs Executive Jet's NetJets fractional ownership operation took delivery of its first completed Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) late last month. The aircraft is the first of 11 BBJ completion orders from NetJets for Lufthansa Technik' s Hamburg facility, which says that it is confident of winning the 14 outstanding completion orders for the fractional ownership scheme's proposed fleet of 29 BBJs. Wv*.f lightinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 13-19 NOVEM BER 2001 45
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